I am writing this article moments after watching ‘Kakkoos’, a documentary about manual scavengers in India. I urge you to watch it, even if you don’t have the stomach for it. If you’re looking for facts and statistics about manual scavenging then you’re reading the wrong article, that kind of information is best covered by someone other than me.
To say that I am horrified by what I saw in this documentary would be stupid, dishonest and deceitful, because I was already aware of the reality of the situation. I knew about manual scavenging as a practice – most of us have some level of awareness about it, don’t we?
And Kakkoos, as a documentary, does not say anything more than we already know, yet it is a thought-provoking film to watch. Here are some issues the documentary highlights; issues many of us know about, but don’t really pay much attention to.
- Manual scavenging is deeply rooted in the caste system.
- Scavengers suffer from all kinds of illnesses. They have to come in direct contact with shit, hospital waste, harmful chemicals, and more shit. When they get ill, they are shunned by hospitals.
- They are an economically downtrodden class.
- Even amongst low caste scavengers, women are outclassed. They are regularly raped and molested and sexually exploited.
- There are grades of tasks under the category of ‘scavenging’; toilet cleaning is the lowest in the rung.
- They are paid poorly. They get 300 rupees a month, and there is no record of their work.
- Manual scavenging is a part of the “private sector”.
So much for the ‘Swach Bharat‘ (clean India) movement by our honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. But again, didn’t manual scavengers exist during the UPA rule as well?