Scavengers in India

India is the only country in the world where a particular section of the society is traditionally responsible for keeping the habitation clean by removing the waste products of the society including the human excreta. This is a disgrace to the country, and instances are not replete even to day when one can see people carrying Night-soil in buckets on their heads or removing human excreta by physical touch. Who are these people ? Why are they compelled to do such type of in16 August 2002human and dirty work and how long these neglected sections of society will remain under such bondage ? Is there any solution to liberate and rehabilitate them by the end of 2002? These are some of the complex questions agitating the minds of well-meaning people, politicians, sociologists, planners and administrators in the country. The country which has won freedom from the slavery of the British people 54 years age is not able to liberate from human bondage, who are variously called Bhangis Balmikis, Dalits, Adi-Dravidas, Malas, Safi, Madigas and Pariahs, and are still engaged in this traditional occupation of sweepingand scavenging.