This may be an old one, but it is still relevant today. Mulk Raj Anand, the distinguished writer of yore who wrote on dalit issues gives us the fictional tale of Bakha, a toilet cleaner in pre-Independence India.
We are taken through a day in his life - a day that is fraught with unusual goings on, which in turn serve to highlight the plight of scavenging outcastes, the tension that exists between upper and lower castes of those days, and some possible solutions for the problem.
There is a memorable description of how his sister has to wait for a passing brahmin to draw water from the well that she is not allowed to venture close to it lest she should defile it, and how she has to fight other dalits waiting to get his favour similarly. Further, Bakha gets assaulted during the day for running into a higher caste man, and has to endure his sister being molested by a brahmin priest in the temple.
Solutions are offered to him in the form of possible conversion to Christianity by a 'sympathetic' missionary. Thankfully our hero does not fall prey to these machinations, as his plight would have continued to remain the same even after conversion, as we have seen that discrimination and groupism exist in this very religion to date.
Next, he comes across Gandhiji, who has arrived to his town to deliver his speech denouncing untouchability and to declare that all Indians are equal. At the same venue, he overhears a conversation between two eminent personalities attending the speech, whose identities are not revealed, but one of them talks about the flush commode, which will eliminate the need for manually emptying night soil.
While these solutions are but options offered to the suffering dalit masses of those times, it is sad to see that each of these three options still apply to the existing world.
Conversion is very much rampant, as it seeks as many wretched souls as possible to accept the 'true' path, ostensibly to give them a better life, but ends up dividing the society through its intolerant approach.
We still need to change our attitudes, as Gandhiji exhorted us to do, especially in smaller towns and villages where khaps, caste politicians and vested interests still rule roost. Even in today's so called metropolitan cities, is it not a common practice to bathe after having had your hair cut at the barber's? I was even admonished if I touched anything at home after a hair cut, but once I found out the real reason behind this, I broke this taboo by making sure I touched just about everything in the house, including people.
Technology, no doubt, has improved. Yes, we do have flush toilets, we even have Italian and German made commodes and shower capsules. But where does all the night soil go? Down the drain, through the sewerage system, and into a nearby river or stream. We still have manholes that need clearing once blocked, and for this, we still have the corporation employed scavengers. They still do not have any protective gear as they go about doing this, and they still operate like this:
We have a lot more to do to make our living conditions change for the better.
Image sources:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Untouchable_Cover.jpg/220px-Untouchable_Cover.jpg
http://counterview1.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/manhole-cleaners-in-chennai-unprotected-like-elsewhere-in-india1.jpg
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