Manual Scavengers: a Blind Spot in Urban Development Discourse
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ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Manual Scavengers: A Blind Spot in Urban Development Discourse SHAILESHKUMAR DAROKAR Shaileshkumar Darokar ([email protected]) is at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Vol. 53, Issue No. 22, 02 Jun, 2018 The author would like to thank Durgesh Solanki for his comments on the first draft of this article and the editor of this article for their feedback. In the wake of the recent deaths of manual scavengers in Mumbai and Bengaluru, this article focuses on the life of conservancy workers and highlights the challenges they face through a few narratives of the workers themselves. It is based on the Baseline Survey of Conservancy Workers of MCGM which was conducted in 2015 by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and was sponsored by the Tata Trusts. Four contract workers fell to their death on 1 January 2018 while repairing a nine metre- long sewer line in Powai, Mumbai (Johari 2018). The cable of the crane which was lifting the workers from the manhole snapped, causing their deaths. Less than a week later, three manual scavengers in Bengaluru died of asphyxiation, a common cause of death among the workers (New Indian Express 2018). This is routine news for the workers—the unappreciated, true foot soldiers of “Swachh Bharat” who dive into manholes with minimal protective gear and put their lives at maximum risk. Manual scavenging is a hereditary, caste-based occupation that predominantly involves forced labour. More than an occupation, it has been a custom or practice that has continued uninterrupted despite all the available technology and alternatives. It is also the most ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 dehumanising and degrading practice in the country and is undertaken mostly by Dalits. The news of these deaths just shows us that nothing has changed in recent times. What is the need of the hour? We need to plan multiple interventions to reduce and eventually eradicate the inhumane, undignified, and unsafe practices in manual sanitation work in Mumbai. This article provides the low-down on what it is like to be a conservancy worker,[1] why things have remained the same over the years, and what can be the way forward. Mission Garima Padma Shri Sudharak Olwe captured the hard-hitting realities of the daily lives of about 38,000 conservancy workers employed in Mumbai in his photo documentation project “In Search of Dignity and Justice—The Untold Story of Conservancy Workers.” The project began in 1994 when Olwe, a photojournalist, tried to capture the experiential realities of the day-to-day lives of conservancy workers. Two decades later, in June 2014, this powerful imagery documented by Olwe led to the launch of Mission Garima (Mission Dignity), a collaborative effort of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM/BMC) and the Tata Trusts, Mumbai. This mission aims to eliminate or reduce unsafe practices of manual scavenging in Mumbai. Baseline Survey In order to plan the interventions and other strategies for achieving the said goal, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences was requested to carry out a baseline survey[2] with three broad objectives: i) determine the exact number of workers doing manual conservancy work of any form in Mumbai; ii) categorise the total number of workers based on wards, type of job, work profile, and department; iii) identify the basic problems that lead to manual conservancy in order to plan intervention. Thus, the survey explored aspects such as working conditions, tools/equipments, conditions at chowki,[3] health, housing, alcoholism, and indebtedness. The methodology of the baseline survey was designed in such a way that the data collection covered all the conservancy workers engaged in the following departments of the MCGM: solid waste management (SWM), storm water drains (SWD), and sewerage operation (SO). The baseline survey attempted to cover permanent conservancy workers, including leave reserved (LR) workers[4] and those deployed by community based-organisations (CBOs)/non- governmental organisations (NGOs). It was found that the nature of work of the SO and SWD departments was more or less similar, and it differed from the SWM workers. As far as the strength of workforce was concerned, a larger number of workers was concentrated in the SWM department in comparison to SO and SWD. A total of 39,729 workers were ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 surveyed, of which 82% (32,588) were interviewed, and 18% (7,141) were not interviewed. The number of permanent workers across departments was 28,847. Among the total number of workers surveyed, 80.3% were male and 19.7% were female. Life of Conservancy Workers in Mumbai As far as the working conditions of the conservancy workers are concerned, the workers reported very little or no change over the last few years (especially since the mid-2000s when Olwe documented their lives). The nature of their work and the tools they use have remained the same but the quantum of work has increased. Some of the old areas of the city are infamous for theit house gullies.[5] Neither the house gullies have changed nor have the lives of the house gully workers. Similarly, for manhole workers there is hardly any change in the way the task is done. There are machines, but they have not yet simplified the lives of these workers who still have to compulsorily enter the manholes. There is no change even in the tools they use—spliced bamboo, rods, spades, and buckets. Govind,[6] a motor loader safai karmachari, working at P L Lokhande Marg says: The BEST workers have a lot of facilities. But for us there is no facility, no soap, no uniform, and no safety gears. The rooms provided to the workers are usually filthy, with no proper toilets and bathrooms, dysfunctional fans, and no desks. Very few karmacharis even have their own lockers. We earn less but expend more. The sweepers (designated as scavengers) revealed that there has hardly been any change in their daily work of sweeping roads, and collecting and disposing waste in community bins or at collection points. Even their tools (broom, wooden plate, pushcarts or two-wheeled bins) are the same. The quantum of garbage generated in Mumbai has increased substantially. In 2004, the city generated around 7,800 metric tonnes of waste per day (Mahadevia et al 2005). This increased to 9,400 metric tonnes per day in 2017 (Telang 2018). However, the strength of the workers has more or less remained the same.[7] The city has witnessed an uninterrupted process of construction and reconstruction of buildings. The tasks of toilet cleaners (known and designated as halalkhors[8]) are of the same nature as in the colonial times. The lack of water storage facilities at public toilets is an age-old problem and it continues to add to the difficulties of workers. The tasks of drain cleaners have not changed much, but they have to face unique challenges: structures/tenements in slums do not remain static; the gullies have become narrower over time; and water pipes and cables run through the drainage lines (Bjorkman 2015). In some slum areas, the drainage lines are covered with cement and cleaning these drains, given the congestion, is a big challenge. The drain cleaners face all ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 kinds of problems from the residents too. The workers do not get protective gear or equipment on a regular basis and complain that the equipment given is often of inferior quality. Change and Continuity in the Last 15 Years Ajay, a safai karmachari working with the BMC, while cleaning a small gutter with his bare hands says: Aamchi pidhi hech kaam karat hoti, ani pudhe suddha hech kaam karnar aahe (Our entire generation has been doing this work, our next generation will also inherit the same work.) The locals call us kachre wala or gutterwala. They say that the municipal corporation pays you for doing work. We know that we clear garbage and clean gutters, but that does not mean that the people will address us by our occupation. We are also humans. We have feelings too. What they don’t know is that we don’t have basic bathroom and toilet facilities, no changing rooms, no place to have food or even to rest. In a few words, Ajay summed up what it means to be a safai karmachari or a conservancy worker in the financial capital of the country. Further, it also highlights the plight of safai karmacharis in the wake of Swacch Bharat which has invisibilised the work and condition of the worker. The Swachh Bharat Mission focuses only on cleanliness, but the workers carry the real burden of this cleanliness on their shoulders. They are the backbone or foot soldiers of such a campaign. However, the campaign has mostly been about politicians taking selfies but no discussion on eradicating manual scavenging has been forthcoming (Durgesh 2016). The biggest problem in Mumbai is the city’s shrinking land space for development. Despite being the financial capital of India, more than 42% of Mumbai’s population lives in slums and is said to be crammed in about 8% of the city's land (Ashar 2016). In such a situation, it is a huge challenge for the MCGM to provide basic amenities, services, and shelter to the citizens. The findings of the survey have highlighted that the working conditions of conservancy workers have improved very little over the years and have remained hazardous. Conversion of mill lands into commercial buildings, increase in floor space index, and slum rehabilitation projects have changed the landscape of the city, but in terms of the sanitation infrastructure, dumping sites, garbage collection points, chowkis, equipments, and communities doing the sanitation work, there has been no change.