Manual Scavenging in India

Talk about the divide that a fast growing nation like India creates and you are looking at virtually every aspect of everyday living. Just noticed a small editorial piece on manual scavenging in India in one of the dailies. Yes, it still exists today...worst part is, that though i find it disgusting and unimaginable, i was aware of this commonplace practice in India and perhaps just chose to turn my face away from the filth. Never ever giving a thought to the men and women who provide the 'service'. Still in this day and age, 1.3 million such men and women carry and dispose of human excreta.

In this scenario it is heartening to find efforts of a voluntary organization - Safai Karmachari Andolan (http://safaikarmachariandolan.org) . Its efforts are truly laudable in a country where such tradition and caste based mindset changes are difficult to bring. While this is an abyss of social imbalance, we perhaps do not blink at the sordid conditions prevalent in other professions - whoever cared about the health and well being of rickshaw pullers, coolies, building labor. Do we even consider them a part of our society...or even a vote bank? I guess the majority chooses to ignore as I had done before...