For the past 40 years, Haralkar, who founded Safai Kamgar Parivartan Sangh (SKPS), has been working for ensuring the dignity and rights of the sweeper community.
With a mission to change lives of sweepers in India and guarantee them a life of dignity, Ramesh Haralkar, a former civic sweeper, recently visited the United States to interact with social organisations working for the same cause. He was amazed to find that sweepers in the USA are accorded equal dignity and so is their work.
For the past 40 years, Haralkar, who founded Safai Kamgar Parivartan Sangh (SKPS), has been working for ensuring the dignity and rights of the sweeper community. He started the movement Jhadu Viruddh Khadu (drop broom, pick up chalk) to further his cause. His efforts bore fruits and the word spread far. Recently, he got a chance to visit New York to connect with international groups that support his cause.
Haralkar said that Madhav Chavan, founder of Pratham Education Foundation, made the arrangements for him to be at the Tri State Gala event at New York where he got chance to meet different social activists and groups to share the current status and living condition of sweepers in India.
Haralkar is determined to make sure that the children of sewage workers get access to education and do not have to follow the footsteps pf their fathers. He says that sweepers in the US are respected by both the government and the citizens.
"From solid waste management (SWM) department to common people in USA ensure that garbage is not thrown on the roads," said Haralkar. However, there is contrary in India where people throw garbage anywhere without thinking that a human being cleans it.
News of sewage workers dying while cleaning drains is common in India. Such news comes from across the country including cities like Delhi and Mumbai where civic body has huge budget and machinery to clean it. "The sweeper in USA gets hand gloves, mask and other equipment while in India, despite provision of all such materials, sweepers hardly get," said Haralkar.
During his visit, Haralkar met a few students at the Columbia University also. "I met social activist Milind Awasarmol and his team in New York; they are associated with Ambedkar International Mission (AIM), USA," said Haralkar. He added that they appreciated SKPS efforts for their immense contribution to the betterment of the sweeper community and showed interest to support the cause.
The activist said he got a chance to meet many people who were willing to extended their support to the SKPS cause. "Advocate Swati Sawant, based in New York, assured to provide educational support to the SKPS team and their future generations who are pursuing higher education," added Haralkar.
BUT WHO CARES?
News of sewage workers dying at work is common in India. Such news also comes from cities like Delhi and Mumbai, where the civic bodies allot a huge budget to maintaing cleanliness.
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