Sir/ Madam

The video uploaded and shared by Tata trust and Ratan Tata showing manual scavenger is objectionable and misinformed. In the video, a schoolchild speaks while the audience are surprisingly hearing him as he is telling that his father runs the country (Mere Papa Desh Chalata Hai). In the background, his father appears cleaning gutter as a manual scavenger. As you are aware, the manual scavenging is banned by law and in this video is glorifying an act that is prohibited by law of the land.  The ultimate message in the video is that it advocates waste segregation, which is good cause and may be with good intentions. The video can be seen here - https://twitter.com/RNTata2000/status/1229650531834040320?s=20

However, there is no need to show the pathetic condition of caste forced slavery of manual scavenging to advocate waste segregation. What needs to tell people to segregate the waste is that to give up their false notions of purity and pollution and ask them to be as responsible citizens. Nevertheless, this video advocates that the people should be sympathetic to the manual scavengers because they are facing problem while cleaning the gutters. How progressive is this idea?

Manual scavenging is a forced slavery of ex untouchable communities in India and this video missing the context – history and problem of Brahmanical notions of purity and pollution as an issue of waste segregation and reducing whole issue of caste notions into an issue of waste segregation.

If the TATA trust wants to speak about manual scavenging and the better working conditions of the manual scavengers, they should advocate for complete eradication of manual scavenging and rehabilitation of all the manual scavengers to another jobs. Those sweeping and cleaning works should be mechanised and people should take up it as a work, job, and profession instead of a caste-forced slavery as it is practiced today.

Because, one needs to understand that scavenging is hereditary and is not taken up by choice. None of the scavenging families wants to continue the occupation of their ancestors; it has then been made hereditary by force. No scavenger does their job voluntarily; it is a caste system with its socio-economic and religious sanctions. It has created a situation where there is no other option available for Scheduled Caste communities except for doing this filthy job. The only exception to this phenomenon is Saint Gadge Baba Maharaj, a saint and environmentalist from Maharashtra.

This video completely dismissed the   day to day reality of manual scavenging as a caste forced slavery by reducing whole issue into waste segregation and by hiding the actual problem – that the Brahmanical religious notions of purity and pollution  as a root cause of the sanitation in this country

Therefore, we the under signed are calling for the removal of the objectionable video produced by Tata Trust and shared by Ratan Tata as it is misleading and hiding the real problem of sanitation in the country that is the Brahmanical notions of purity and pollution that resulted in caste forced slavery of manual scavenging.

 

Signatures

Dr. B. Karthik Navayan