From Sanitation Worker To Padma Shri Awardee, The Life Of Usha Chaumar

President of prestigious NGO Sulabh International, Usha Chaumar, was once a sanitation worker. President Ram Nath Kovind awarded her the Padma Shri Award for her social work in environmental sanitation.

Usha originally hails from Alwar, Rajasthan, and has worked as a sanitation worker since she was a child. She used to accompany her mother, a sanitation worker herself, to work. She used to clean dirty latrines and pick up human faeces with her bare hands.

Sanitation Workers Being Treated As Untouchables

Her mother often told her that it was her life and she would have to do the same work even after marriage, so it was better to stay grounded to reality and not have unrealistic dreams.

No one dreams of doing such a job, no one wants to pick up human excreta every day and dispose of it and that too with bare hands, but that was her life. She remembers going to people’s homes to clean and carry their waste.

It is an irony that the people who clean waste are also treated as waste in our country. They are sidelined by society and are termed as untouchables. This is their life and they make peace with it; dare they dream of a different life. Dreaming is not a privilege everyone has.

Usha remembers her childhood and being taught by her mother that they were untouchables since she was as little as 7. She was taught that she was born as an untouchable and was destined to live her life as an untouchable.

The so-called dishonourable job she did changed her life. People shunned her and no one wanted to touch her. Her family was prohibited from entering houses and temples. They were not allowed to buy groceries from the market as well. The job made her feel so dirty that she rarely had an appetite for a meal once she returned home after the job.

As time progressed and she had children, she often dreamt of sending them to school to receive an education like other children. However, she was denied that as well. She couldn’t send her kids to school as people of a higher caste in school objected.

Leaving Sanitation Work Behind

In the year 2003, she finally was able to leave her work. She credits Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh International, for the same. She was just waiting for an opportunity to come her way and when Nai Disha NGO gave her one. She grabbed it with both hands. She could finally begin her journey of living a respectable life of dignity.

Nai Disha helped her learn various skills like making papads, noodles, Heena processing, stitching, making clothes, bags and beauty parlour services.

Sanitation work for the whole month paid her just ₹200–₹300 a month, which was hardly enough to manage the house. They lived on the leftover food provided by the families they worked in and the used clothes that they got once a while.

When Dr Pathak approached her and asked her to come to Delhi to begin a new life, her mother-in-law was completely against it. However, her husband supported her. He told her if nothing, she would at least get to visit Delhi once in her life.

The very first thing that was taught to them was cleanliness and hygiene. They were taught to begin their day with a bath, wash their hair and dress well. This is something they never did previously because of their job—no one takes a bath and then goes on to clean toilets and pick faeces.

They were also taught reading, writing and basic mannerisms of how to behave in public.

Over a period of time, the same people who used to shun her and treat her as an untouchable were now buying products from her and calling her to their homes to provide beauty services. Some of them now invite her to weddings and family functions in their family as well.

Fighting Against The Caste-Based Practice Of Sanitation Work

She soon started raising her voice against the horrible practice of sanitation work and inspired many other women like her. She has travelled to countries like the U.S.A., South Africa and Paris and has addressed huge gatherings advocating her cause. She dreams of a day when sanitation work is completely eliminated.

She is now the president of the same organisation. It was Dr Pathak’s dream that the president should be someone who came from the ignored section of society and almost every woman collectively chose Usha.

There are so many people who still spend their lives as sanitation workers and many who lose their lives to it. It is to be noted that sanitation work is banned in India but is still prevalent in the interiors of our country. This is a caste-based practice and it is mostly the people from the Dalit community who are employed.

PM Modi’s initiative to provide toilets in every household to avoid open defecation has helped a lot. Other than that, many NGOs like Sulabh International work tirelessly to solve the problem by educating and training people for an alternate occupation.

No one dreams of doing this job and no one does this out of choice. These are people who have no option and they live a life of hell. Their children have no choice either and they pay the price of being born in that family.

Do they deserve this life? Are we any better than them? Would you and I do this job?

We all know the answers to these questions. So let us all work together to stop this dehumanising practice. Usha Chaumar wants to make sure that no one ever does this sort of work. She is an inspiration to many women and personifies grit, dedication and resilience.

I would also like to add a word for Dr Pathak—a human being we should all aspire to be. A man who changed so many lives and gave so many people a reason to live, not just exist.

These are the hero’s we deserve. This is the inspiration we need in life.

Congratulations, Padma Shri Smt Usha Chaumar.

Featured Image via sulabhinternational.org