https://archive.vn/6r0rd
"It all began with a dare. Bindeshwar Pathak, then seven or so, wondered why
the thin little woman who came through the back door sometimes, selling bamboo
utensils to his Brahmin family, was called “untouchable”. He wondered why his
grandmother sprinkled holy Ganga water over the floor where the woman had
walked, and was told she had polluted it. So, one day, he dared to touch her
sari, to see what would happen to his body.
Nothing happened to it. But uproar broke out in the house. They called in the
pandit; he said Bindeshwar must be banished. His mother intervened to save him
from that, but the rest of the priest’s remedy was almost as terrible. He had
to plunge into cold Ganga water and, much worse, drink a mixture of milk, ghee,
curd, cow urine and cow dung, to purify himself. Grandmother mixed it up
fiercely and forced it down him.
Later he learned the reason for it. The poor, creeping woman belonged to the
Valmiki community, the lowest caste. Its women mostly made a living by
collecting night soil, cleaning it out from buckets and dry-pit toilets with a
metal brush and pan but often with bare hands. They then carried it on their
heads, in baskets, to some far place. For this work they were shunned, even
after they had bathed. They could not use the wells unless some “clean” soul
drew water for them. Shopkeepers threw them the goods they bought, and shook
water over their money. It was fine to touch a dog, but not these human beings,
who were exactly like him.
From 1950 the notion of “untouchable” was banned in India. It continued
because their work did; because most Indians, if they had toilets in their
homes, had pits that needed cleaning. The Pathak family did not employ anyone
for that because, in their roomy and comfortable house, they had no toilet. It
was not in the least unusual; most Indians had none then. Each day at 4am
Bindeshwar would hear the women of the family set off to relieve themselves,
safely in the dark and the trees.
So began his obsession with sanitation, which soon became a mission. The
equation was simple. If Indians had proper flush toilets, they could clean them
themselves. If the scavengers were not needed, they could, with training and
support, find other jobs and lead dignified lives. India could become cleaner,
healthier (since pit toilets spread disease) and, in time, more equal.
Liberation of scavengers had been Mohatma Gandhi’s dream, even more strongly
than independence; now it was his. Helping another human being was a prayer to
God. In 1970 he set up an organisation, Sulabh Shauchalaya, meaning simply
“accessible toilet”. Officials might not care to discuss his work over tea, but
he sometimes felt he loved it more than his children or his wife."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-poverty-bangladesh-conservation-ecuador-indigenous-fire-australia/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
