SPECIAL REPORT

From where shall I begin counting my sorrows?'

 "Dukh kyanthi ganvoo?" the bhangis ask. Eight hundred thousand bhangi families continue to make a living carrying nightsoil away from dry toilets in baskets, standing neck-deep in pits filled with excreta in order to clean them, dragging away rotting carcasses, delivering messages of death and disease, opening and sewing up corpses no forensic expert will touch, asphyxiating in city sewers....
Their names are Kachro (Garbage) and Melo (Dirty). Their new clothes are stitched from shrouds. This is the horrifying and immensely moving story of their lives in modern India

by Martin Macwan

So much has been written on and around the issue of the bhangis (scavengers) of India. Various commissions set up by various governments have made hundreds of recommendations. Schemes have been drawn up, promises made. But they have only been violated. What can I add to this subject  which is not theoretical and impotent? All I can do perhaps is report on what I and my colleagues have seen. These facts tell the story of the scavengers, but more than that they tell the story of the State, which  has maintained the status quo. These facts describe the lives and conditions of around 800,000 families of scavengers in India today.

Forced labour of the filthy kind
Vado varvano chh
(Dry latrines have to be cleaned)
There are various kinds of  dry latrines in both urban and rural areas. These units are either private or managed by local self-governments.

Vassida varvana baki chh
(I still have to clean up the waste)
Vassida means the dung of animals, along with other filth that is scattered all over. It needs to be collected and dumped at a designated place. The village has a sizable number of cattle. The dung mixed with hay is dumped at a site to make manure. The excreta of very young babies is also mixed in the collection. Vassida is collected manually into shallow plates made of tin and dumped. The dumping grounds are often near the bhangi houses. After the dumping is over, the tin plates are cleaned by hand by mixing dry soil and wiping off the sticky content. This is to save the plates from corrosion. For their pains, some food is given to them every day. At the end of  the threshing season, they are given 10-15 kilos of grain.

Vadoliyu
There are still some feudal communities which are considered high caste but are poor. Their women live in enclosures. These women are forced to use small dry latrines known as Vadoliyus. This is a hand-dug small pit in the ground, not deeper than one foot, in which human excreta is dumped. It has two bricks, one on either side, to serve as a footrest. Four wooden pillars posted around the pit, covered with pieces of jute bag, provide privacy.

Dabba jajroo
The rich in the village build proper toilets, which are at the end of their castle-like homes.  Excreta goes into a tub with a tin box below, removable from outside. The removal of this box cannot be seen from the inner part of the house.

Gutter latrines
The open gutters for disposal of filth are connected to every house. Children and even adults defecate directly into these gutters in the darkness, and the excreta mixes with dirty water and other filth.

Vada jajroo
In every big village the local government demarcates a plot of land, one each for men and women, to be used as an open toilet. The plots are covered from all sides with a three to four-feet-high wall, with an open entrance at some point. In a  larger village there may be several such latrines.

Khada jajroo
A properly built latrine is connected to a soak pit at the  back. The bathroom is also connected to the pit. The mixture of water and excreta  never leaves the pit dry. When the pit is full, the person who cleans it gets in the pit, neck-deep. For a period of three to four hours he stays in the pit covered with filth up to the neck.

Village community latrines
These are of various kinds. There is one set of properly built latrines, without a tub, where disposal is through a hole to the common open drain at the back.

The other kind is like a big hall, with two rows of toilets, one opposite the other. The distance between the rows, which are raised above the ground about a foot-and-a-half, is approximately three feet. People come in with only one small tin of water to wash themselves with. The waste is collected with two tin plates and emptied in a bamboo basket for disposal. The basket is either carried on the head or shoulder. At times, the basket can be full of worms, which breed very fast in the waste. The bhangis dispose of the human waste. Most of them are women. Their day starts very early in the morning with the foul smell of shit and ends with the same foul smell as their houses are close to all forms of latrines. The owners of private dry latrines pay them Rs 5 per month and a piece of bread every day. The piece of bread can be seen hanging in front of their bellies, tied in the sari, while they work, hands soiled with filth.

The local self-government, which employs them through state government grants, does not follow uniform standards of payment. Some bodies pay Rs 50 per month, while others pay Rs 600.  In some cases, the salaries have not been revised  for the past 20 years or more. In semi-urban areas, payments are higher, although there are unequal payments for men and women. The grants used for these payments through the self-governments are part of the World Bank loan given to the nation under various development programmes.

The workload never decreases, because the population is always  increasing. So when mothers are sick, unable to work and at the same time cannot afford to take leave, the children join them. The children, dogged by the smell of shit, are then boycotted at school.

 Alya,  kutru  dhahaidi  kadh
(You, drag away that (dead) dog)
There are some animals which are useless after death. They are also considered inauspicious. Dogs and cats fall in this category. Many Hindus return home halfway if a cat crosses their path. When  cats and dogs die, they have to be discarded. Where there are no bhangis, other members of the Dalit community are summoned to discard such animals. There have been incidents of physical attacks on Dalits if they refuse to do the job.

The dead animal is tied with a string and then pulled away, out of the village. All passers-by go off the road with their hands covering their noses and mouths, to keep the foul smell at bay.

Railway tracks
Even when trains stop at stations, some passengers continue to defecate. Excreta in this case is trapped between stones. The only way to remove it is by scraping with wire brooms.

Manholes
Metropolitan and big cities have flush latrines connected to sewage lines.  When they are blocked,  the scavenger gets in through the manhole, and dives into the filthy water with a bucket to remove all kinds of substances, such as plastic, cloth, glass pieces, etc. In industrial pockets, the chemical waste is channelled to these gutters or seeps in.

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 32 people were reported dead over the last two years, while in the manhole, having inhaled carbon-monoxide.

Pathology laboratories
Stool and urine for tests are collected from patients only by bhangis.

Post-mortem rooms
Corpses are handled by bhangis. It is a bhangi who opens up the dead body, and  sews it up after the autopsy. In the case of a murdered Dalit, where the body was exhumed after 17 days, I witnessed that the doctors stood at a distance taking notes. It was a bhangi who cut the body, broke the skull and removed bones and organs for examination.

Hospitals and maternity homes
It is the bhangis' task to remove blood, urine, and faeces-stained bedsheets. And to clean up waste, urine and wash patients. Tables in labour rooms are cleaned by bhangis. Hospital jobs are carried out by women. They are referred to as mahetranis.

Traditional duties in villages: Enforced by custom, tradition, and the imperatives of survival
Haad padi aav
(Go, make the announcements, town-crier)
In villages this medieval mode of communication is still popular. The bhangi is asked to go from street to street and announce a meeting or warn cattle-breeders who are trampling crops etc. In return he is paid a rupee or two.

Toran, dhol and dakla
It is also the bhangi's happier task to tie buntings of leaves over doorways and cloth shades in front of houses celebrating a wedding or festival. All the castes of a village may play the dhol during wedding celebrations. But only the sub-castes like the Dalits may play the small drum (dakla) which accompanies the wailing homage to particular deities. Payments are in cash and kind.

Ja melo aali aay
(Go, give the bad news about the death)
News is of two kinds, good and bad. News about marriages, engagements, childbirth, especially of a male child, pregnancy etc is good news. News about death, specially of the young, is bad news. Good news is sent only through brahmins (even the Dalits amongst themselves have a sub-caste of brahmins). Bad news is only given by a bhangi. In return for this service, he is given some butter, jaggery and bread. He will normally  carry a towel which he will spread on the ground to sit on after the news is delivered. The relatives of the dead must empty a cup of coarse grain into the towel. So far as the eatables are concerned he will borrow a utensil from his local caste men and get food in it. He might sit there on the road and eat his given food or carry it back home for his family.

Traditional practices: Internalising degradation
 Varelu, mantrelu khavanoo
(Eating evil or cursed food)
Belief in black-magic persists among the rural and urban poor of the so-called lower and middle castes, and sometimes even the `upper' castes. Food that has been chanted over is, for instance, left at the nearest crossroads to free a person from evil spirits. No one touches that food. Except, of course, the bhangi, who eats it as part of his life-long struggle to fight hunger.

Vadu aljo maa baap
(Masters, please give us dinner)
Vadu means dinner. Aljo means please be kind to give.  Maa-baap means mother and father literally, but, in this context, it means kind masters.

Whether it be a city or a village, in the evening,  when one is about to finish dinner, a person, generally a woman, sometimes accompanied by a child, enters the street. Both carry aluminium utensils. The woman shouts with utter humility, "Vadu aljo maa baap."  At some distance the same appeal is repeated, and then, meekly,  they go to a central place and wait. Both are barefoot. The woman has a bigger utensil and the child a smaller one for solid and liquid food respectively. Members of families, mostly women and children, come out with food, and, from a little distance, empty the food in the utensils held by the woman and child. The woman, expected to be deferential, says, "Lao, maa baap," and is careful that her child does not, even by accident, touch the one who gives the food, or spill the food.

There is someone else, also waiting in the street -- the dogs. The family members walk out with two separate plates, one to be emptied in the utensil and one on a big stone plate, fixed at a place for the dogs. Sometimes the dogs will smell  the food and, without  touching it, walk away.

Baa, paani redi aljo
(Baa, would you please pour water for me ?)
A woman of high caste is addressed as Baa. Dalits are not allowed in many villages to draw water from the well. The worst is that scavengers are not allowed access even to wells meant for Dalits. They have to wait at the side, until a high caste lady has some mercy and pours some water in their pots. Specially in the agricultural season, when the sowing operations are on, they have to wait for hours to get a pot of water.

Dabhdo
(A kind of wild grass)
The grass has many uses in villages, specially to save the family from the wrath of supernatural elements. A little Dabhdo is always put along with the dead body in the grave. It is also required when there is an eclipse of the sun, which is believed to bring disaster to the family. The sun during the eclipse is believed to be possessed by Rahu. Therefore, to save the family from likely disaster during the eclipse, some Dabhdo is thrown on the roof of the house. Dabhdo is always handled on such occasions by a bhangi. If at all the wrath descends, it shall descend on him.

Zampdo and Zampdi
The rural, lower caste poor generally have their own local village-goddess (called gram-devi or gram-devta). These local gods-goddesses are not a part of the classical Brahminical Hindu religion, and can be appeased only by "black" magic rituals. There are some who bring love, compassion and wealth. There are others who bring wrath and disaster and have to be feared. It is interesting to note that all good gods (who promote welfare) i.e.  Saraswati (goddess of learning), Lakshmi (goddess of wealth), Brahma (the creator) are worshipped by the high castes. They are painted as artistic and beautiful personalities, fair and attractive, with compassion in their eyes. Gods who bring destruction such as Meldi (who asks for child sacrifice), Kalka (black with a long tongue) are worshipped by the poor. Hadaksha (the goddess of rabies) is worshipped by bhangis. The gods of the poor promote only destruction and fear.

It is believed that  close contact with a bhangi, whether dead or alive, is equally harmful. The ghost of a bhangi male is known as Zampdo and the female as Zampdi. All other ghosts can be appeased, but not Zampdo and Zampdi.

Therefore, one does not find a bhangi roaming around after dark, for fear that they will become the victims of supernatural elements.

Kafan and loogdu
(Shroud for a dead body)
The end of life's journey is death. The dead body of a male is covered with white cloth and the female body with red cloth, known as the kafan and loogdu. Just before the body is laid to rest in the grave the cloth is removed and draped on a bush. After the burial, the bhangi takes the kafan home for a new dress.

Prohibitions
Jaan gaam mathi na kadhay
(Marriage procession cannot enter the village)
The marriage procession of a bhangi cannot enter the village from the main gate. Similarly, they cannot adorn themselves with jewellery or shiny clothes. There have been serious incidents of attacks on the scavengers for not having obeyed the above rules. They cannot hire music parties on the occasion as done by others. A young boy was beaten up because he had dared to tuck his shirt in.

Phuleku pheravvu ke nahin?
(Can we celebrate a pre-marriage ceremony?)
Phuleku is a pre-wedding ceremony where the boy, with a garland around his neck, painted with turmeric powder, and with a knife and coconut in hand (knife to protect against the evil spirits) is invited around to all the families of his community. He is fed sweets and offered money as gifts. Normally, he is accompanied by his friends and young girls who chant marriage songs.

In higher caste communities the same ceremony has added elements. The boy is on horseback, going around on public roads with musical instruments and firecrackers.

Dalits are not allowed to do anything by which their ceremony  matches the one of the higher castes. There have been incidents of mass attack when dalits have tried to sit on horseback for the ceremony.

Maaiyaat kyan thi kadhshu?
(Which way shall we carry the dead?)
There is always cause for worry when someone dies in the community. The dead body of Dalits cannot be carried out to the cemetery by the main village gate, for that would defile the village. Often, therefore, it's a long detour by the time the body reaches the final destination.

Ane ame bhanta bhanta utri gaya
(And, we dropped out of school)
Sangeeta, now 14, describes how she was pushed to the last bench in the class by teachers.  Earlier she scored very good marks.  But she and other bhangi children  felt so persecuted by the teacher that they dropped out of school. "I had dreams that one day I would be a nurse or doctor, but I have become a scavenger.  All my dreams have shattered." Unable to continue, she breaks down.

Bhadto nathi? Ankho phuti gayee chhe?
(Can't you see? Have your eyes blasted off?)
One hears this common phrase whenever a bhangi approaches a higher caste person. A bhangi untouchable must stand or walk at such a distance that his shadow does not fall on the higher castes.

Darav vanu dukh
(Who will make flour for us?)
In many villages the flour mills owned by high castes do not grind flour for scavengers. They have to go on cycle to other villages for the purpose. This is a major problem we have seen in the villages of Patdi taluka, in Surendranagar district.

Ey, utho ahinthi
(You, get up from here)
In a village called Zanand, 70 kms from the state capital, the scavengers are in a really difficult position. The village has no wastelands, as the village is close to the river, and the land, being fertile, has all been cultivated. The problem for bhangis is where to go to defecate. Wherever they go, they are forced to get up and go away. This applies to the women too.

Niche bes
(Sit on the floor)
The bhangi or other Dalits, though elected as members of the local government bodies, may not sit on a chair. They have to sit on the floor. There are times when they are not summoned for meetings. Later, their signature or thumbprints are acquired as proof that they have attended the meeting.

Mohan ghere chhe?
(Is Mohan home?)
Mohanbhai is my colleague in his early 40s. He belongs to the bhangi community.
It was dark  and we were waiting for dinner to get ready. Someone shouted at the end of the street. On his return, I enquired who the caller was and  learned that it was the village postman. The post is not delivered to his home. Mohanbhai was privileged to even have his post delivered at the end of the street.

Ram patar utari laav
(Get Ram bhagwan's cup)
Ram patar is an earthen cup kept separately for Dalits in almost all upper caste houses. It is placed over the outer pillar, under the roof. So when any Dalit member goes to that particular house, he is offered tea in that. After tea, which is poured into the cup from above, he has to wash (again the water for the purpose shall be poured from above) it and place it in its original place. For Dalits, including scavengers, the very fact that they are offered tea by a high caste person is cause for pride.

Desperate search for subsidiary sources of income
Hadka vinvana
(Collecting bones from garbage)
Adults and children collect bones, along with paper and glass pieces, to be sold for a petty sum in the market.

Supda and indhoni
Supda means a straw flat tray used to clean the  grain before cooking. Indhoni is the grass object placed by women on their heads to support matkas.

For bhangis the only clean means of earning is to make these two articles of household use. In the primitive barter economy of the village, the bhangis are paid in kind (grain) and not cash. Buyers are few and far between. The only significance is that these articles are not considered polluted by their touch, and that in a small way they are allowed to become artisans for a while.

Self-perception and the perception of others
Chhathhi na lekh
(Destiny inscribed by Fate on the sixth day after birth)
On the sixth day after a child's birth, a piece of paper and pencil are kept under the pillow of the newborn. It is believed that Fate or Vidhata inscribes the fate of the newborn, which can never be undone. Most bhangis believe their fate was divinely ordained.

Saheb, ame rahya dhor
(Sir, we are like animals)
Whenever you enter a scavenger colony and start a dialogue about getting organized or fighting for rights, someone or the other will say,  "How can we understand all this? We are like animals."

Kachro, Melo,  Dhudiyo and  Bogho
(Boys have names like Garbage, Dirty, Dusty, Idiot, etc.)
These are common names of bhangis. One can add more to the list. In Gujarat, all male names carry Bhai (brother) and females Ben (sister) as a suffix. But not the bhangis and dalits. Dalits who live in cities do not adopt these names anymore.

Akho ne akho hadi gayo chh
(He is completely rotten, very sick)
This is how a very sick person is described in the community. The phrase is generally used to describe rotten vegetables or fruit. A study conducted by a special team set up by the Planning Commission to study the health problems of scavengers says that scavengers are more vulnerable to anaemia, diarrhoea with vomiting, respiratory infections, skin diseases, jaundice and other
ailments compared to others.

Dukh kyanthi ganvoo?
(From where shall I start counting my sorrow?)
The old in the community are especially pathetic. Crippled by age and negligence, they are a helpless lot. One only hears  from their mouth the repeated wish of an early death.

Cha piso?
(Will you have tea?)
Even when the scavenger knows that you do not consider him lowly as others do, they make sure by asking whether you will have tea or water at their house. Often, even social workers will go to their homes, but decline the offer of food and drink. Whereupon bhangis will offer to fetch you tea from the market.

In cases of major atrocities on Dalits, police protection is provided. The police from higher castes will not receive even water from Dalits. In such cases Dalits go to the high castes, with whom they have had a dispute, and request food and water for the police.

Tane  bhangiya  raakhe?
(How about sex with  a bhangi?)
This is the worst abuse one can direct to a non-bhangi woman. It is provocative enough to lead to the murder of the one who utters it. To call someone the brother of a bhangi is also considered a filthy abuse.

Mara haara bhangda phati gaya chhe
(Bhangis have crossed their limit)
This is a remark full of contempt and intolerence made by higher castes. Whenever a bhangi is well-dressed, going to college, riding a vehicle or anything else which suggests an improvement in his financial or social position, this remark follows.

Scholarship for the "children of persons engaged in filthy and unhygienic occupations".
This is how the government has termed a scheme to financially assist the school-going children of bhangis. The teacher is in charge of applying, securing and finally disbursing the scholarships from the government. The  duties and powers of the teacher are discretionary. There have been several cases where we had to intervene and force the teacher to pay up the scholarship money to the parents, which had not been done for four years.

Loans for dhols and nagaras (drums)
The government of Gujarat has a special scheme for bhangis.  Financial aid is given if they want to purchase dhols and nagaras. A dhol is a drum tied around the neck and played. Nagara is the drum which is placed on the ground and beaten.

This is in pursuance of the self-employment programme.

Tamne dhandha no anubhav nathi
(You do not have any experience of business)
The Central government in the early 1990s declared a National Scavengers Scheme.  The aim was rehabilitation. The rehabilitation package consisted of part grant and part bank loan to  scavengers for anything other than scavenging.

One bhangi youth applied for the scheme.  The government authorities approved the part grant and forwarded the application to the local bank for a loan.  The bankers told him, "Since you have no experience in business, we cannot give a loan."  The loan was sought as capital for the purchase and sale of dress material. The loan amount was Rs 5000. "How can I have experience, unless I do it?" the applicant pleaded. The banker kindly offered a loan for the purchase of a drum instead.

The story of chhaniya ghaun
Chhaniya is animal dung and ghaun in Gujarati  means wheat. In a village called Vataman, in Ahmedabad district, my friend and colleague told me that in the threshing season, the wheat crop is threshed by bullocks which crush the wheat crop with their feet. In the process the bullocks eat lots of raw wheat and, afflicted by diarrhoea, expel it. When that happens, people fill the dung in  bamboo baskets, bring home the stuff, mix it with lots of water, separate the wheat, which settles at the bottom of the vessel, and dry it before taking it to the flour mill. The wheat collected like this can take care of the family for two or three months. So far I have seen only bhangis engage in this practice. Lately, with the increased use of tractors and threshers, chhaniya ghaun is not easily available.

The  story of Laxman
Laxman is eight years old. He lives with his grandparents. His parents are away in search of labour. The village is Vejalka in Ahmedabad district. There is a small paan-cigarette shop in the village. The owner is a Patel, the high caste.
The shop is a popular place for poor children. From here they can entertain themselves by watching television in a house. It was a bad day in Laxman's life. He was so engrossed in a film on TV that he put his hand on the paan shop. The owner asked him to remove his hand. Laxman was too engrossed to hear. The owner threw a handful of wet lime paste at Laxman, but it fell on his clothes. When he flung it again it went straight into the eyes of the boy. The eye specialist hopes to save one eye. I remember that day two months ago when Laxman came to my office with his grandfather. He forgot his pain as he concentrated on the refrigerator, closing and opening it, wondering at its coolness. He asked me many questions about the refrigerator.

I was to take him to the office of an English newspaper. He was ecstatic about getting into a car. I asked him whether he would go to school now. He said, "If I go now, the students and teachers will tease me by calling me blind, so I will go only after I am well."

Haaro maal mara bhag na ayo
(I did not get the better part)
The place is a village in the Vadhwan taluka of Surendranagar district in Gujarat. The reference is to the injustice meted out to a person, the complainant being a person from Bhangi community, over distribution of meat from a dead animal. When an animal is dead in the village, a team of at least four people is required to drag the corpse of the animal to an assigned place. The first stage is skinning which requires skill, as a well-discarded skin would fetch a better price in the market  than one with punctures. The second stage is to separate the meat according to the quality as certain parts are considered better than others. The third stage is the distribution of the meat, where the survival of the fittest applies. The quarrel ensued when the bhangi claimed that the better parts were cornered by a dalit from a higher caste. A police complaint was filed. Foxed, the police sought the help of our organization, Navsarjan.

Two of our colleagues reached the village to find that the aggrieved party had gathered outside the house of a retired police officer from the same village. The police officer invited them in. One of the two workers was from the bhangi community. Suddenly, there was a hue and cry as the host offered drinking water to the workers. The people standing outside said, "Sir, he is a bhangi,  he cannot drink water from your house."  There was such a stir that the original grievance was completely forgotten.

Unemployed bhangi primary teachers
The hope of a job has pushed many bhangi parents to invest everything they have to send their children to the teacher's training college. In 1992, Navsarjan organized a protest programme in the former state capital.  It was Independence Day. The demand was for a change in the existing reservation policy, the main factor responsible for rendering over 1000 bhangi trained teachers unemployed. The policy reserved 2 per cent of  seats  at the teachers college, in acknowledgement of the fact that given all the hardships, bhangi students cannot get a high percentage in the matriculation exams.  But when it came to jobs, it was on the basis of merit. Merit was drawn from the combined marks of both, matriculation and college. In the process, most bhangi students never stood a chance as they had a lower percentage in matriculation compared to others. Our demand to reserve 2 per cent of jobs to balance the position was accepted but never implemented. The entire reservation policy has changed now. The changed policy has made it compulsory for schools to advertise for all vacant posts. Schools are given liberty, however, to turn the reserved posts into unreserved posts if  they do not find a suitable candidate after three rounds of advertisements and personal interviews. The bhangis or Dalits never prove to be suitable in schools managed by caste Hindus and their organizations.

One job, however, is reserved 100 per cent for bhangis -- scavenging.

Martin Macwan is director of Navsarjan, Ahmedabad. This article is based on the script of a film on the bhangis entitled Lesser Humans, by Stalin K of Drishti. It was screened at the Amnesty International Film Festival.

Navsarjan can be contacted at 2, Ruchit Apartments, B/H. Dharnidhar Derasar,  Ahmedabad, India 380006.
Phone : (079) 66 10 412, Fax : (079) 67 49 443, E-mail : rashmi@ad1.vsnl.net.in