RE:Counting for under pooverty line SC/ST benefited from Reservation.
by phattu indian on Jan 26, 2008 04:49 AM Permalink
tum kya pooch dala hai baap. lagta hai kranti laaoge..... meri to hamesha ki tarah phat li hai
RE:CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?
by Calspadeaspade on Jan 27, 2008 02:01 AM Permalink
That may be so for one person. It is degrading for one set of people to clean dry latrins which still exist in India in small towns and villages. High time GOVTs of various states planned the sewage system and make it like in the western world.
I remember going to an unauthorised colony in Mathura some time back. They did not sewage lines laid out yet. So I was told that they had to call a tanker with a vacum blower specially for sucking out the night soil from the collection pit.
it is a disgraceful situation. But somebody has to do the job and in India labor is cheap so this is the cheapest labor. Cheaper labor ensures cheaper standing in society. True of all developing countries. The problem is Indian population. With such a huge population, many people are bound to be exploited. I guess in US and other western countries this job would be more respected and more specialized. This is just a symptom of high poverty and high population. Bring prosperity to majority of the people and this practise too would die. We should try to look at problems as a whole and solve it. Half measures won't do.
I live in a small town. And I can say for sure that the Scavengers, dealing with night soil etc., are absolutely not there, since quite a long time. I have visited several small places as well as big towns, but I have not seen them anywhere. I can not say for sure that they do not exist, but even if they are there I do not think it is a big issue, as is made out to be.
These are specialised jobs and the time will come when it would be a very high-paying one. The other day, the Discovery Channel was showing those people with space suit type suits, along with Cameras, go into public septic tanks doing those specialised Jobs that are not possible to work-out with a machine. These men can easily come into the category of Scavengers. Shall we kick them out from the society? Or shall we prevent them from doing the public work? Obviously, if we enact a law to punish these people or those who engage these people, it would be wrong.
But, I appreciate the article and appreciate the concerns of the author.
RE:Biased rediff
by Raghu Mangalam on Jan 25, 2008 05:31 PM Permalink
Hey Indian -- you are unbelievable, man! What a comparison of issues???!!!??? India needs more and more people like you.
Wonderfully written! Hats off to the writer. At last a sensible piece. Please explore many more such segments and present us the real India that hasn't changed sinced 1947. i figure most of it hasn't and don't care a hoot for what others say!
In India, staying in urban centres is a nightmare as articulated by others. Same is true for those who stay in villages. They have their own problems like lack of sanitation, electricity, health care, infrastructure, etc. A commited effort to focus on all of these is required and i believe media in current state is both incapable and unwilling to dvelve on these facts. And thas why this effort by the writer is commendable and he is an exception rather than the rule.
Kerala is perhaps the only state in INdia where this system is not prevalent. Everyi home has its own septic tank and the waste go there.
Way back in 1975, when I came to Delhi, I was surprised to see cycle rikshaw plying in Delhi roads. This system, of human pulling another human was got rid of in Kerala long back, if my memory is correct in the late sixties. When you go to a barbar shop, raising your arm for the barber to clean your under-arm hair is also considered uncivilized by people here. That kind of an awareness is needed in the rest of india, what is civilized and what is not civilized behaviour.
When messages about Kerala appear in these columns many tend to take a pot shot at them and say they are good for nothing, except for starting tea shops and doing third rated jobs for arabs. Without going into the merits and demerits of such statements, let us atleast congratulate them for what they have achieved in the field of cleanliness. We can see none shitting on the railway tracks in Kerala. Compared to other states, it is a great achievement, although Kerala too has to go a long way to make it 100% clean.
Even in the late seventies, I have seen scavengers in Delhi, the capital of INdia. Social awareness is what we required to get rid of such systems. Every day we see people who live even in Jhuggis spent huge amounts for marriages and other purpose, but they are not ready to spent a few thousand rupees for a proper latrine when they built jhuggis. T
RE:Scavengers
by GOLU on Jan 25, 2008 09:30 PM Permalink
right said...i m not a mallu and i really appreciate this...if labours are controlled for misbehaving..then kerala is trully a paradise
