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CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

I had to work with my head veiled. During the rains, my clothes would become drenched

with excrement. They would not dry. The house would smell. I started to get skin disease

and even to lose my hair.

----Badambai, Neemuch district, Madhya Pradesh, January Badambai, Neemuch district, Madhya Pradesh, January Badambai, Neemuch district, Madhya Pradesh, January Badambai, Neemuch district, Madhya Pradesh, January

2014201420142014

I. INTRODUCTION:-

In India, there are constitutional and legislative prohibitions on “untouchability”

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and manual scavenging. However, women and men continue to be engaged in

manually cleaning human excrement from private and public dry toilets, open

defecation sites, septic tanks, and open and closed gutters and sewers. They

usually embark upon manual scavenging because of traditional caste-based roles

that leave them few, if any, alternate employment options, a situation perpetuated

by poor implementation of laws and policies prohibiting this practice.

Historically, civil, social, and economic life in India has been regulated by the

caste system—a system of social stratification that designates ranked groups

defined by descent and confined to particular occupations. Caste-based social

organization is governed by custom and is enforced socially and economically.

Irrespective of the religion practiced by an individual, caste in India is hereditary

in nature. A community’s caste designation has long had a significant impact on

the ability of members of that community to control land and other productive

resources, establishing broad congruence between caste and class.

Dalits are relegated to the bottom of the caste hierarchy. They have been

traditionally limited to livelihoods viewed as deplorable or deemed too menial by

higher caste groups— including as manual scavengers, leather workers, and

cobblers, among others. Their caste designation also renders them socially

“polluted” or “untouchable” and is used to justify discriminatory practices. As a

result, in parts of India, Dalit communities are still denied access to community

water sources, denied service by barbers, served tea in separate cups, barred from

entering shops, excluded from temples, and prevented from taking part in

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community religious and ceremonial functions.

While India’s constitution and other laws guarantee equal status for all citizens

and outlaws untouchability practices, various forms of discrimination persist.

Even under existing law, Muslim and Christian Dalits are not included as

Scheduled Castes and thus are not eligible for the same protections as Hindu

Dalits under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities

Act, 1989. 13 The persistence of untouchability has been condemned by many

Indian leaders, including then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who likened

caste discrimination to apartheid.

In several developing countries, a notorious proportion of the urban poor,

known as scavengers or waste-pickers, are involved in waste collection and

recycling as a means of income generation. This activity generates a positive

social externality as production costs in some sectors have been reduced and

landfills’ lifetime has been lengthened. In addition, virgin materials are used less

intensively, lengthening the availability of natural resources. The purpose of this

research study is to show that scavengers in developing countries generate a

positive externality on society and therefore their activity should be encouraged

through economic incentives that lead them to increase the amount of solid waste

up to optimal levels. This study incorporates the role of waste-pickers in an

integrated dynamic model of production, consumption and discard of waste,

subject to either disposal or recycling.

Street sweepers play an important role in maintaining the health and

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hygiene in the cities. This job exposes street sweepers to a variety of risk factors

such as dust, bioaerosols, volatile organic matter and mechanical stress, which

make them susceptible to certain occupational diseases. The important morbid

conditions detected in these workers include the diseases of the respiratory system

and eye, accidents, injuries, cuts and wounds, skin infections, animal bites, etc. At

present, the standards and norms for the management of municipal solid wastes in

industrialized countries have substantially reduced the occupational health

impacts. However, in developing countries, the health related underpinnings of

solid waste management still need to be addressed. Workers manually collect the

wastes. There is little, if any, protection to workers from direct contact and injury

and virtually no dust control at the workplaces. Solid waste collectors are exposed

to significantly large amount of dusts, microorganisms, toxins and diesel exhaust

pollution than the recommended norms. In India, the traditional culture has

stigmatized street sweeping as a filthy and lowly occupation. The medical

problems of these workers are further compounded by various socioeconomic

factors such as poverty, lack of education, poor housing conditions and poor diet.

Similarly, very few studies have been carried out in India to study the morbidity

profile of these workers. With this background, and fortified by the fact that no

such study has been carried out in Southern India, the researcher decided to carry

out the present research in a form of doctoral course to study the prevalence of

various morbidities in this occupational group.

The physical characteristics of Third World cities, their rapid expansion,

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and the lack of resources to provide for necessary infrastructure and urban

services, translates into an insufficient collection of the waste generated, as well as

its improper disposal on the streets, vacant lots and, at best, in municipal open

dumps. Most Third World cities do not collect the utility of waste they generate.

Despite spending 30 to 50% of their operational budgets on waste management,

Third World cities only collect between 50 and 80% of the refuse generated

(Bernstein, 1993). Sustainable approaches to waste management emphasize waste

reduction from the generation point, recycling of materials and recovery of

nutrients, chemicals, and energy values from the waste. These approaches

substantially reduce the volume of the waste stream requiring final disposal in a

sanitary landfill, which implies reduced waste-transport cost and a prolonging of

the life span of the sanitary landfill site. Lower waste volume reaching disposal

sites also means less resulting pollution.

The recycling of recovered materials from the waste stream implies less

demand for raw materials to manufacture new products (Kaseva and Gupta, 1996).

An important characteristic of waste recovery and recycling in developing

countries is the participation of the informal sector (Ojeda-Benitez et al., 2002).

This informal sector operates in parallel with formal waste collection authorities,

and is mainly guided by market forces. Since such waste recovery is labor

intensive, it provides a livelihood for many new immigrants and marginalized

people in metropolises. These self-employed workers are often called

“scavengers”, “waste pickers” or “rag pickers” in English speaking areas, but they

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also receive different names depending on the local language, on the place they

work, and on the materials they collect (Medina, 1997). Scavengers have been

defined in many ways. Hogland and Marques (2000) state that scavengers are

usually people who treat waste as “ore” i.e., a source from which valuable material

can be extracted. Ojeda-Benítez et al. (2002) define waste pickers as persons that

literally live on waste and are completely dependent on it for their food and

clothing.

Scavengers often live either on or beside landfills in order to await the

arrival of waste filled trucks. They sort the waste with their bare hands, sticks or

simple hooks. Sometimes entire families work at a landfill in this way (Hogland

and Marques, 2000). However, waste pickers are not always located at dumps. In

some parts of the world, waste picking is done near the source, that is after

collection has taken place at the generating sources but, before being transported

to the dump or landfill (Ojeda-Benitez, et al., 2002). So, scavengers can be

classified as itinerant waste pickers and landfill/ dump waste pickers. The

existence of scavenging as a distinct occupation is based on: markets for recovered

materials; waste in sufficient quantity and quality to meet industrial demands and

people who are willing or compelled to do work that is poorly paid, hazardous and

of a low status (Hogland and Marques, 2000). Scavenging is a common

occurrence in the Third World countries, because of high unemployment,

widespread poverty and the lack of a safety net for the poor (Medina, 2001).

Definitions

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"Manual Scavenger" means a person engaged in or employed whether by an

individual or an urban local body or any other public or private agency, for

manually cleaning carrying or disposing or dealing in any manner with human

excreta in a latrine, a tank, a drain or a sewer line or open spaces including railway

tracks, and the expression "manual scavenging" shall be construed accordingly.

"Inhuman practice" means above-mentioned work of manual scavenging carried

by human being. Manual scavenging in itself a dehumanize practice as it violated

human rights of those who carry it.

"Liberate" means get freed from practice of manual scavenging or leave the

work.

"Rehabilitation" means provide socio-economic security to those who liberated

from the work of manual scavenging. It means ensuring social security by

providing economic resources, which includes permanent resources for livelihood,

education, land and housing.

"Manual scavenging" means carrying human excreta and dumping from one

place to another. Thus, if a person manually cleaning carrying or disposing or

dealing in any manner with human excreta in a latrine, a tank, a drain or a sewer

line or open spaces including railway tracks.

"Released manual scavenger" means people or family members including

mother, father, son daughter, daughter-in law and Grand parents who earlier

engaged in manual scavenging defined under sec 2(a) and left doing so any point

of time before enactment of this Act.

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"Dry latrines" means a latrine such as a bucket or Uthau type of latrine involving

manual removal of untreated human excreta daily or periodically.

Benefits from scavengers activity: The role of waste pickers in developing

country cities is essential for both environmental and economic reasons. It is

difficult to quantify the total contribution of the informal sector to urban waste

management. The informal nature of this sector inherently implies a lack of

official statistical data. Quantification of informal recovery is, therefore, scarce

and uncertain (Van Beukering and Gupta, 2000). Several authors show in their

earlier studies how scavenging provides various social, economic and environment

benefits: Recycling of solid wastes reduces air and water pollution, saves energy,

reduces waste from industrial processes compared with the use of virgin materials,

and in many cases reduces imports of raw materials (Medina, 1997).

II. NEED OF THE STUDY:

Caste System in India since ages based on inequality, discrimination and

Injustice, in which the most cruel and inhuman is the one that pertains to Manual

scavenging, a degrading ‘slavery’ for the lowermost rungs amongst the Caste

system, where people are coerced to carry night soil manually.

Manual scavengers have been deprived of basic rights by the feudal society.

They have been forced to do dehumanized practice by clearing, carrying, handling

and disposing human excreta. Women are mostly engaged in manual scavenging.

Manual scavengers are yet to be liberated from historical injustices even after

independence of India. Fundamental rights of people are violated due to

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continuation of manual scavenging. Therefore, on the basis of Article 15, 17 and

21 of the Indian Constitution following legislation has been enacted.

Whereas Article 15 of the Indian constitution prohibits discrimination to

any citizen on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. However,

manual scavengers are discriminated in the society due to their caste and nature of

work. Whereas Article 17: Untouchability in any form is prohibited under article

17 of the constitution and any disability arising out of untouchability shall be an

offence punishable in accordance with law. However, those who are employed in

manual scavenge and those who released from manual scavenging are still facing

untouchability.

Whereas Article 21 of the constitution provides right to life to every citizen,

but the human rights of the manual scavengers are violated at such extent that their

right to life has been violated. However, the directive Principle of State Policies

under part 4 of the Indian constitution stated that State shall secure a social order

for the promotion of welfare of the people. Thus, the state is duty bound to liberate

and rehabilitate manual scavengers from the practice of manual scavenging and to

rehabilitate those who have released from the practice of manual scavenging but

manual scavengers has been deprived of opportunity for development due to

discrimination by the society. Among them, people who work as manual

scavenger have been deprived of social justice.

Sweeper who has been dedicating their lives for cleaning our community

for ever and a day treated as untouchable caste here. Mahatma Gandhi honored

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them with the title "Harijan" which means children of God. Unfortunately the

sweeper one of the 44 schedule Hindu caste communities is the most neglected

part of the society. The people of this community said that their grandparents were

bought by British Empire from Hyderabad to do physical work. Their language

remains Madraji, Teluga or Hindhi not in Bangla. Still now, their cultures are

different from upper caste Hindu and similar family also. Historically, this

community has been employed in sweeping and cleaning city garbage. Habitually,

they think themselves as sweeper for generation by generation. According to the

international convention on the elimination of all forms of the racial

discrimination (CEDR) agreement, the government is bound to fullfill the basic

needs of the employment houses, education, healthcare services of lower caste

people. The community is isolated in terms of political, economical and mental

aspect from the mainstream community. They are not allowed to eat in the hotel,

read in the school, or sit in the public place of mainstream society. Their

livelihood have not yet been changed a little.

Moreover, the traditional job becoming more competitive to them because

the government and semi government agency have been recruiting non-

professional sweeper from other upper caste community. Being they are not

capable for other profession and a part of poor they always have been enduring in

the vicious cycle of poverty. Some local and international organization has formed

with a view to protect they their rights. Donor, International and local NGOs have

been working for the sector for couple of years. most of the contry and United

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Nations are committed to reduce the racial discrimination also. There are a number

of challenges and constraints which effect Dalit communities rights and equal

opportunities to enjoy fundamental human rights. Most notably, this concern the

lack of access to education, poverty issue health and housing problem, unequal

access to work, discrimination against women, bonded labour and child labour

(IDSN, 2009).

III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Many communities throughout the world are battling with the problem of

how to safely and effectively manage their municipal solid waste. Solid waste

recycling is now becoming a common practice in the developed countries as

people become more conscious of pollution problems caused by uncontrolled

waste generation and disposal (Morris and Dickey 1991). Through proper

legislation, coupled with education and intensive citizen participation, relevant

agencies at local, state, and federal government levels, have been able to reduce

the amount of waste disposed of in incinerators and landfills by adopting

appropriate recycling program (Kelley 1992).

In order to reduce the possibility of contamination and increase the rate of

capture of the recyclables, sorting at the source is emphasized. The recyclables are

placed in a special container at the curbside, separate from another container

where the non-recyclables are kept. Well-planned and well-implemented recycling

programs have been very successful at reducing waste and costs. In Wilkes-Barre,

Pennsylvania, it resulted in a savings of $500,000 in landfill avoidance costs

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within the period between 1988 and 1991. A 60–70% reduction in waste was

achieved in Leeds, England in 1991. Apart from cities, university communities are

also increasingly involved in recycling programs. At the University of Colorado,

the reduction in waste as a result of implementation of a recycling program was

30%. The corresponding values for Stanford University, the University of

Michigan, and the University of Minnesota were 28%, 15%, and 25%,

respectively. The landfill avoidance costs for Colorado, Stanford, and Michigan

were 50%, 20%, and 25%, respectively.

Planned recycling does not exist in India as it does in developed countries.

In India the problem of solid waste management has become more complex in

recent times due to rapid population growth, urbanization, and industrialization

and the rising standard of living. Both the quantity and diversity of waste now

being generated have increased. This problem is further complicated by political,

economical, and sociological factors. Solid waste is managed at the municipal

level by either the state government agency or contractors who are involved in

waste collection, transfer and transport, and disposal. Usually, waste collection

and disposal is restricted to the urban areas and has not been extended to the rural

areas. Urban waste management is still fraught with many problems like lack of

financial resources, collection and transportation facilities, poorly developed

dumping grounds that are potentially threatening to public health and

environmental health, and poor management. In the eighties, when the economy

was booming, technological, socio-economic, and marketing considerations

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encouraged more people to buy the new goods and discard the old. There was

general disregard for the potential reuse and recycling of waste material. In recent

times, however, the bad national economy has forced some people into reusing

their old materials. In some homes, waste paper, cans, and glass are stored

separately and sold to scavengers when they visit.

IV. OBJECTIVES:

1. To know the socio-economic status of scavengers in Gulbarga City.

2. To assess the nature and magnitude of the problem of scavengers in the

study area.

3. To assess the family livelihood condition including financial and

nonfinancial part of scavengers.

4. To find out the trend and attitudes of scavenging profession.

5. To trace the impact of socio and economic conditions on sweeper at

work.

6. To attain the expected social relations and health hazards.

7. To access their social status and professional recognisation.

8. To suggest policy measures to removal of social disorders of scavengers

in Gulbarga city.

V. HYPOTHESIS:

1. Child enters into Scavengers at an early age.

2. Majority of Scavengers come from large family.

3. Majority of Scavengers belongs to Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes.

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4. Higher the broken family, higher the number of Scavengers.

5. There is inverse relationship between parents� education and Scavengers.

6. Majority of Scavengers belongs to poor family.

7. There is significant relationship between occupations and social status

8. There is significant association between caste and age at entry into

Scavengers.

9. Educations of Scavengers are associated with type of job.

VI. METHODOLOGY:

The present study being an exploratory and diagnostic one, thus it has been

decided to carry out in Gulbarga City. However, due to the poor political will

from the State Governments, the Gulbarga District remained economically and

industrially most backward district in Karnataka State. But with its heterogenetic

culture it ideally serves the purpose to undertake the present research study in this

area only.

Method of Data Collection:-

The present study is basically an empirical in nature. The secondary

sources like books, journals, government manuals, websites and published and

unpublished works related to the subject were also used. The primary data is

collected with the help of structured questionnaire along with interview method.

The primary data is collected with the help of structured questionnaire

along with interview method. The interview schedule consists of seven parts.

They are

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Personal identification of child rag pickers:

In this part demographic variable such as age, sex, religion, caste, mother tongue,

level of respondent education, reasons for dropping out of school, etc, are

included.

Family background:

This part is devoted to the family background of scavengers. The aspects covered

under this dimension are type of house, size of family, structure of family, type of

family, father and mother educational background, father and mother occupation,

total family income, facilities of house have etc, comes under this section.

Working conditions:

This part is deals with working conditions of child scavengers comprises of

duration of work, nature of work, using separate clothes and equipments during

waste collecting, kind of job, monthly earnings, utilization of money, exploitation

of child scavengers, etc,.

Group identification:

This part consists of group identification of scavengers. It throws light on

working in group, number of persons in group, sex wise distribution of group

members, location of frequent of waste picking activities. The study also traces to

find out number of visits to particular location, timing to visit etc,.

Personal behaviour:

The part gives the details of the personal behaviour of scavengers in the study

area. The study focuses on intensity of hunger among scavengers. It analyses the

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bad habits developed scavengers and their involvement in the anti-social activities

etc.

Health of child rag pickers:

This part consists of sickness during the work, sickness of the last time, type of

illness, injury during the work, type of injury, consultation for the illness or injury

etc,.

Perception of child rag pickers:

This part focuses on role of NGOs in development of scavengers, awareness of

the child rights among scavengers, reasons for not taking benefits of government

schools, requirements of scavengers, aspiration to have good education and

foresee about future life etc,.

Universe / Sample:

In order to collect the primary data from the respondents, the Random

sampling design have been adopted i.e., by using house listing and sampling

method. Further the sample size of 438 questionnaires served while interviewing

the study respondents.

Analysis of Data:

Moreover, for the detail investigation, qualitative research techniques has

been used (case study or focus group discussion) and lastly, necessary multiple

statistical tools has been applied with the help of computer to analyze the data in

a scientific way.

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Further we used some statistical tools for data analysis of the study such as tabular

analysis and chi-square test in this research.

In the present study, the qualitative information obtained during the interviews,

using a pre-coded questionnaire. Quantities information obtained from the

structured interview schedule was edited carefully. The data were processed by

SPSS package. Analysis of quantitative information consisted of producing simple

frequency. In order test the hypothesis statistical technique of Chi-square is

calculated.

VII. LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESENT STUDY:

1) Present research is delimited to study of Karnataka.

2) It is delimited to study of Gulbarga city.

3) It is restricted to the study of 438 Scavengers Gulbarga city only

VIII. ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS:

The present Research “Traditional Profession and Livelihood: A Study on

Scavengers” is spread over 9 chapters:

CHAPTER–I: This is about introduction, which presents the details of historical

background, types of scavengers, characteristics of scavengers, constitutional

safeguards for scavengers and conceptual frame work of the study. Research

methodology of the problem, need for the study, which discusses objectives,

hypothesis, sample, data collection and analysis methods.

CHAPTER–II: This chapter gives an account of review of literature related to

scavengers.

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CHAPTER–III: Discuss the profile of the Study area

CHAPTER–IV: This chapter is devoted to the family background of scavengers.

CHAPTER–V: This chapter reflects upon scavenger’s livelihood condition and

standard of life.

CHAPTER–VI: This chapter presents scavengers professional trend attitude and

job satisfaction.

CHAPTER–VII: This chapter deals personal behavior and perceptions of

scavengers.

CHAPTER–VIII: this chapter deals with scavengers professional health hazards

CHAPTER–IX: This chapter devoted to the summary, findings, conclusion and

suggestions for further studies.

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