The Sociology of Trash People
Inspired by my $5 rocking chair, I had promised a post on the sociology of trash while sitting in Boston, MA. Why Americans choose to throw out what they throw out. But somehow that seems misplaced now that I am back home. So here’s a modified version of that: this was almost as shocking to me as it is to you. Blame it on my naiveté.
In the India where some of my friends buy their Ralph Lauren lingerie for Rs 5000, and fasting housewives are taken by their MNC-husbands to 5 Star hotels for their Rs 1000 Navratra Thaali, there exist nearly 700,000 “manual scavengers” who get paid Rs 20 per month for manually lifting human excreta with their hands and carrying their load on their heads and shoulders. Many of these scavengers are women from the “dalit” (untouchable) class who earn their monthly earnings by cleaning “dry latrines”. (Note: In case you think Rs 20 = 50 cents a month is probably enough to feed a family in a developing country, like some globalization and sweat shop factory lovers, let me put it in perspective for you. 20 Rs is barely buys 2 loaves of breads, 1 kg of rice, or 2 bottles of coke - the coke bit just so that you ca REEALLY relate to it and don't forget we are talking anout Rs 20 PER MONTH)
I admit I am so not in touch with reality, sitting in my cushy grad student revolving chair, that I had to google what exactly people mean by "dry latrines". In India there are about 10,000,000 houses with dry latrines – where there is no facility for a flushed toilet. Traditional notions of impurity discourage people from having indoor toilets and lack of adequate water and facilities prevent many from getting toilets with water. What they have instead is a hole in the ground with a pot where the shit collects.. for days.. till the manual scavenger comes and carries it away in a basket on her (and sometimes his) head. Most of these scavengers work without proper equipment, without gloves, gumboots, not to speak of any safety equipment.
In the India where some of my friends buy their Ralph Lauren lingerie for Rs 5000, and fasting housewives are taken by their MNC-husbands to 5 Star hotels for their Rs 1000 Navratra Thaali, there exist nearly 700,000 “manual scavengers” who get paid Rs 20 per month for manually lifting human excreta with their hands and carrying their load on their heads and shoulders. Many of these scavengers are women from the “dalit” (untouchable) class who earn their monthly earnings by cleaning “dry latrines”. (Note: In case you think Rs 20 = 50 cents a month is probably enough to feed a family in a developing country, like some globalization and sweat shop factory lovers, let me put it in perspective for you. 20 Rs is barely buys 2 loaves of breads, 1 kg of rice, or 2 bottles of coke - the coke bit just so that you ca REEALLY relate to it and don't forget we are talking anout Rs 20 PER MONTH)
I admit I am so not in touch with reality, sitting in my cushy grad student revolving chair, that I had to google what exactly people mean by "dry latrines". In India there are about 10,000,000 houses with dry latrines – where there is no facility for a flushed toilet. Traditional notions of impurity discourage people from having indoor toilets and lack of adequate water and facilities prevent many from getting toilets with water. What they have instead is a hole in the ground with a pot where the shit collects.. for days.. till the manual scavenger comes and carries it away in a basket on her (and sometimes his) head. Most of these scavengers work without proper equipment, without gloves, gumboots, not to speak of any safety equipment.
Ma was just saying that we, the middle class in a country like India, have got insensitive to a lot things. Either we live in convenient guilt-free ignorance (like me) or with blinders (like the rest of the junta here) who convince themselves that everyone is really rich just by counting heads at Barista…Eeps this was a depressing post for a Sunday morning
posted by Amrita Pande at 10:15 PM
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