‘I get paid Rs8 for clearing animal carcass from roads’

The stink from carcasses of animals that die in road accidents and which are not cleared by the civic authorities is often nauseating. One can only imagine the plight of people who have to move these decomposed road kills to other places.

Despite several attempts by development organisations to curb manual scavenging, it is common to see dalit children drag the carcasses.Navsarjan - a social organisation that works on issues of discrimination against Dalit children has found out that more than 1,000 children from several districts of the state are involved in manual scavenging.

Thirteen-year-old Umesh Vegad from Vallabhipur taluka of Bhavnagar district says he is made to sit on the floor of the school while others get to sit on the benches. "Teachers and children from Patel and Darbar community are treated us differently. I clean my class twice a month and urinals once every week. I get work of moving dead animal bodies from the roads to other places and I get paid Rs8 for that," says Umesh.

Such children, who have left their studies because of discrimination in schools, will share their plight and pain of being born in a dalit family in a public hearing organised by the NGO today at Gandhi Ashram between 12 to 4 pm.

Manjula Pradeep, executive director of Navsarjan said, "We want to put forward this issue to the government. Even today, there are people who believe there is nothing wrong in cleaning toilets by children from lower castes, especially dalits. We want, dalit children to be in the mainstream just like other children. They should also attend schools and get to study. The public hearing will help kids from Valmiki community."

Talking about discrimination with children of Valmiki community in schools, Hasmukh Adhia, principal secretary state Education department said, "If such cases of discrimination would be brought to our notice, we will put the children in main schools."

Gautam Valmiki from Harij town of Patan district tells no different story. "We face discrimination during mid-day meals at our school. The students from other community abuse and treat us in a bad way. Iam made to clean my classroom daily. My father earns Rs1,500 every month and everyday, I go to Ambikanagar to collect leftover food. We get Rs10 ff we drag carcasses from the roads and move it to other places.

Manjula Pradeep said that eminent people will attend the public hearing as a jury. It includes Justice RA Mehta, former acting chief justice of Gujarat, Kamlaben Gurjar, member of National Commission for Safai Karmacharies, Ishwarbhai Patel, former member of National Commission for Safai Karmacharies, Martin Macwan, founder of Navsarjan and dalit leader, Mari Thekakara, writer and journalist and prof Ghanshyam Shah, political scientist.