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A Long Road to Freedom

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak
The Founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement, who has made Gandhian vision and his constructive programmes of restoration of human rights and dignity to scavengers, (manual carriers of human excreta) a mision of his life.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak was born, in 1943 in village Rampur Baghel in the Vaishali District of Bihar, into a Maithili Brahmin family, a community which has over generations, provided India with some its most
eminent thinkers, academicians, and civil servants.

He went to college in Patna and graduated with Honours in Sociology. Returning to his village in 1964, he started career as a teacher in his old secondary school. He liked his chosen vocation and took a keen interest in the academic pursuits of his pupils. Once, in the course of an argument with the school Principal, on his frequent repetition of a lesson, he explained that unless the students fully understood what was being taught to them, it was pointless proceeding further. Later, he introduced a novel copy evaluation system by which the students’ answers were marked, on the basis of their knowledge from their books, rather than the universally common, albeit stricter standard of judging from the knowledge standards of the examiners! However, as he was only temporarily filling in a leave vacancy on Rs.100 per month, he left teaching.

With marriage in 1965, came new responsibilities. With the help of an old family friend in the Bihar Electricity Board, he joined the Patratu Thermal Power Station as a daily wage earner on Rs.5 per day. After a year, deep frustration followed as the thought slowly began to emerge that why not do something, to justify birth in a high caste family, and also work to benefit society and thus, carve one’s own place and identity. But such dreams were long to fructify.

He next joined his father’s business in promoting the sale of Ayurvedic and other indigenous medicines to
sugarcane co-operatives. This required carrying heavy packs on the back and shoulders over long distances into the heart of the old indigo plantation areas of Champaran and Darbhanga. But, through
the travails, grew the realisation that in our Eastern values, knowledge is superior to trade.

With his father’s consent, and a fateful loan, he set off on a long train journey; this time for completing a
Masters in Criminology at the University of Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. However, whilst sipping tea at
Hazipur railway station, two elder relatives, in a chance meeting, persuaded him to drop his study plans and proceed to Patna for a job in the Bihar Gandhi Centenary Celebrations Committee in 1969. Later, the ‘very famous’ in the Committee were contacted but no job! Also by this time his seat at Sagar, for the Master’s study, had been filled; so, back to square one.

For four months, he worked as an unpaid translator from English/Hindi/English, and then his luck turned
and he got a job for Rs. 200 per month in the Centenary Celebration Committee on Restoration of Human Rights. This committee was formed with the object of restoring human right and some dignity to the lowest class of people whose sad lot in life, in perpetuity, was collecting human faeces manually – now called ‘scavengers’ from ‘untouchables’ before Independence. His job was to explore and find alternative scavenging systems, and more daunting, how these scavengers could be brought into the mainstream of Indian society?

It was Mahatma Gandhi’s most ardent wish, “I may not be born again, but if I happen I will like to be born
in a family of scavengers, so that I may relieve them of the inhuman, unhealthy, and hateful practice of
carrying head - loads of night-soil.” But young Bindeshwar was brought up as a Brahmin. Right from childhood it had been drilled into him, not to touch anybody, or take water from anyone’s hand, or eat cooked food at anyone’s house. Once shrieking and protesting, he was forced by his grandmother to publicly swallow cow dung, sand, and Ganges water as he touched an untouchable!

These deep-rooted prejudices evoked no sympathy from his superior, Mr. Sarju Prasad, who said it all in
his prophetic wisdom. “I don’t care to which caste you belong to; I don’t know whether you are an engineer or not, but without being an astrologer I see light in you, and can envision you to be able to rise to the task”.

He was given two books to read. One published by the World Health Organisation on Excreta Disposal
for Rural Areas and Small Communities by two sanitation engineers, Edmund A. Wagner and J.N. Lanoix and another in Hindi by Rajendra Lal Das. The WHO publication was subject to very close study, and many passages of it, left a lasting lifetime’s impression in young Pathak’s mind. “Suffice it to say here that out of the heterogeneous mass of latrine designs produced all over the world, the sanitary pit privy emerges as the most practical and universally applicable type.”

The WHO publication laid out the following seven conditions to meet the criteria for a latrine sanitary latrine.

1. The surface soil should not be contaminated.
2. There should be no contamination of the ground water that may enter by way of springs or wells.
3. There should be no contamination of the surface water.
4. Excreta should not be accessible to flies or animals.
5. There should be no handling of fresh excreta. Or when this was indispensable, it should be
   restricted to the barest minimum.
6. There should be freedom from odours or unsightly conditions.
7. The method used should be simple and inexpensive in construction and operation.

However, the suggestions in these books were for the application of this technology only in rural areas. Applying his mind, Pathak thought the soil conditions of rural and urban the same technology can also be used urban areas. Therefore, he concluded that this technology, after some improvement, could be a viable alternative to scavenging. Accordingly, he innovated, modified and developed alternatives to suit the urban conditions, at the same time, making 4-5 new designs for different site conditions such as, congested areas, restricted spaces etc.

Perusal of WHO’s books helped Dr. Pathak develop a technology which has proved to be revolutionary. The two-pit pour-flush technology is remarkable for its many advantages; it is hygienically appropriate, cost-affective and easy to construct and maintain with locally available materials. The design and specifications can be modified to suit the needs and the paying capacity of the user. The toilet can be located inside the house or outside. It can be constructed in different physical, geological and hydrogeological conditions and does not pollute surface or groundwater. Its maintenance is simple and does not require the services of a scavenger or large volumes of water. There is potential for upgradation as it can later be connected to sewers, once sewerage is introduced in the area. A low volume-flushing cistern can be attached and the whole set-up needs very little space. Additionally, fertiliser is generated. Earlier, the world had only two technologies – sewer system and septic tanks. Both are expensive to construct and maintain, and require excessive water for flushing, unlike the Sulabh technology.

Thus began Dr. Pathak’s lifetime’s involvement in this programme of the highest social importance, and dearest to Mahatma Gandhi. He went on to live with scavengers for four months, ate their food, and shared their lives with them. In this simple, but very direct way, he set out to “cleanse” himself of caste prejudice, and elevate himself, technologically and socially, to be capable of finding alternates, not only to methods of scavenging but, more importantly, to restore some semblance of human right and dignity to scavengers.

He returned from the scavenger colony totally converted and firm in his resolve that he would thenceforth dedicate his life for the cause of scavengers. However, by the time they could chalk out any programme for training and demonstration, the tenure of the Gandhi Centenary Celebrations Committee came to an end, with the Government of Bihar deciding to wind it up. But the visionary Chief Minister, Daroga Prasad Rai, decided to continue with the programme of abolition of scavenging but through some other organisation. He held the view that Government alone could not implement programmes of social importance and that the Government and NGOs should closely work together to achieve the desired results. An organisation had to be found to carry out the programmes. This was Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak date with destiny had arrived! He now did not falter, and on 5th March 1970 the Sulabh Swach Shauchalaya was launched. This was the first small step in the long journey of many thousand miles towards e radi cat ing untouchabi l i t y and soc ial discrimination. Which was like making the earth and
sky meet.

A small step to a long journey

It is without doubt the WHO provided the generic and technical support to the Sulabh Sanitation Movement which it later became to pursue a global agenda for a clean and healthy life. For the effective
implementation of the Sulabh programmes, a right type of organisation was important. Registered companies are generally not recognised by Government, as they are set up for profit. Cooperative societies, although recognised by the government, have no shareholders for there is no profit to share. It is social service. Therefore, with a few other members, Dr. Pathak founded a non-profit social voluntary organisation, which could be acceptable both to Government and the people. Initially, the organisation was named the Sulabh Swach Shauchalaya Prashikshan Sansthan. Later, it was changed to Sulabh Shauchalaya Sansthan, and then to Sulabh International. It’s now known as the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation.

After the formation of the organisation, a report was submitted on the technology and methodology of pit-latrines to the Government of Bihar. The Government engineers were however, critical on the functioning of the pit latrines because they knew only of two technologies – the sewerage and the septic tank. They were not too ready to accept the new technology of pour flush toilets. The Government of Bihar took over three years to decide on Sulabh’s proposals. Meanwhile in the Arrah Municipality in Bihar, two toilets were first set up for demonstration. After, seeing their functioning the Municipality Chairman approved the proposal. He was pleased to see the toilets, which he said that it was the dream of Mahatma Gandhi come true. Thus, the Sulabh Sanitation Movement cut its teeth from the Arrah Municipality, Bihar.

As the people of Arrah were not familiar with this technology, Dr. Pathak had to go house-to-house to sensitise them on the health hazards of the existing bucket toilets, cleaned by scavengers, and how the new pour-flush toilets, called Sulabh Shauchalayas, were an appropriate, affordable, indigenous, and culturally acceptable alternative for scavenging. Slowly, but steadily the people got converted to the new system, and the Sulabh Sanitation Movement, starting from the small town Arrah, became an International Sanitation Movement.

A letter that moved the mountain

But an interesting development took place. Mrs. Gandhi then Prime Minister of India wrote to a Bihar MLA.

“I have your letter of the 17th March and am concerned to read that the State Government has not been able to utilise the Fourth Plan provision for Schemes designed to eliminate the odious practice of carrying night-soil on the head.

I am writing to the Chief Minister and asking him to give his personal attention to this matter. I entirely agree with you that our Party should be active in this important social programme.”

This letter fortuitously, helped the programme a lot, and finally in 1974, the government of Bihar named the Sulabh technology and the organisation for implementation of the programme. This was, however, only the beginning. But, once the programme started, it became successful, Government’s Public Health engineers raised objections on the contamination of water from these toilets. The Government of Bihar asked the Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, to give its opinion on the matter. Later, the Institute opined that there were no chances of contamination of soil, if these toilets were constructed with due care.

WHO again

Dr. Pathak contacted the WHO for its opinion on contamination of water by pit latrines. Mr. A.K. Roy, who was the WHO Sanitary Engineer at its India office, was unable to believe that Sulabh could convert 40,000-bucket latrines into water-seal pourflush toilets. When Dr. Pathak met him in 1977, Mr. Roy said that he had spent more than 35 years as a public health engineer, besides being Chief Engineer in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, but felt they could not implement this programme on such a large scale. After some persuasion, he agreed to send a WHO sanitary engineer, Mr. Alberto Besa to see the functioning of Sulabh’s toilets in Patna and Ranchi.

On the basis of his findings, Mr. Besa submitted a very favourable report. The WHO, in collaboration with UNICEF, and Government of India, organised a national seminar in Patna in 1978. The subject of the Seminar was Conversion of Bucket Privies into Sanitary Water-seal Latrines. Apart from the WHO, representatives of UNICEF, World Bank, Planning Commission, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Works & Housing, All-India Institute of Health & Hygiene, (Calcutta), Secretaries and top officials of all State Governments participated. After a three-day deliberation, for the first time in India, came the landmark recommendation that bucket latrines could be converted into water-seal, pour-flush toilets. The WHO, published a brochure written by its Public Relations Office on the activities of Sulabh, and it was widely distributed throughout the World.

Comes UNDP

Now, the UNDP entered the scene in 1979 and conducted an evaluation study of this technology, and finally in 1985 prepared a manual for the adoption of Sulabh technology in the countries of South East Asia, Latin America and Africa. The Ministry of Urban Development of the Government of India sent the Sulabh technology to Istanbul (Turkey) for its evaluation in 1996, where HABITAT II declared it as the Globally Best Practice. Once again in 2000, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement declared the Sulabh technology as the Best Practice for Human Settlements. The Dubai Municipality, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and Human Settlement Management Institute of Housing and Urban Development Corporation, selected Sulabh as the Best Practice, and awarded a golden trophy and $ 30,000 in cash out of 1,100 entries from 125 countries.

To date, Sulabh has converted over one millionbucket latrines into Sulabh toilets and relieved 1,20,000 scavengers from the demeaning practice of physically handling and carrying human excreta. This technology has shown the way towards resolving an acute problem of the country; of scavenging, wherein 500,000 scavengers, 40% women, are engaged in physically cleaning human excreta manually. As much as 630 million people (of the one-billion plus) population of India till today, have no toilets in their homes, both in rural and urban areas, and they have to go for defecation in the open. Women are the worst sufferers, as they have to go for defecation, either before sunrise or after sunset. No wonder, more than 1.9 children in India die every year of diarrhoea and dysentery. It was the WHO and its landmark book which became the basis for solving one of India’s most difficult problems.

Scavengers – Among Untouchables before Independence of India

Scavengers, a class of people united in their suffocating misery, were traditionally ordained in Indian society to clean and carry human waste, and they have been doing till very recently. Their appalling hardships, humiliation and savage exploitation have no parallel in human history. Living in the filthiest of surroundings, under most appalling circumstances, even those whose excreta they carry on their heads hate scavengers! Reduced to the depths of degradation, as untouchables, and forced to lead a sub-human existence, they were the worst victims of a cruel social order. Theirs is a sordid story of the utmost violation of human rights. Their heart-rending plight stretches over centuries and is a blot on Indian civilisation. It’s indeed a black chapter in India’s history which one and all must atone, for the misery perpetrated by man on fellow man. Despite endeavours by government and civil society in recent times to liberate scavengers from the agony, the long shadow of institutionalised discrimination, stigmatisation and marginalisation still refuses to fade. Before we come to the contemporary scene, it would be appropriate to have an overview of scavengers in the historical perspective, which would enable us to discuss the subject more realistically.

Social Outcasts

Why were they treated so cruelly? R.E. Enthoven in his classic, Tribes and Castes of Bombay circa 1920, writes that scavengers were the dregs of Hindu society. They are, an admixture of outcasts who have fallen to this low level owing to offences against the social codes of the higher castes. Scavengers were expressly ‘excluded’ from the mainstream of Hindu society and were held in utter contempt and treated as untouchables. Although, the scavengers served the high caste Hindus in very menial and dirty tasks like cleaning and carrying human excreta, they were cruelly treated and had no civil rights. They were not allowed to live in the main town or village, but had to dwell in hutments, resembling monstrous mounds of earth, outside town/village limits. No person of the higher caste could have any, but the most distant communication with a scavenger, for fear of losing his religious purity. They had become so demeaning untouchable, that they were forced to strike a wooden clapper on entering a town or village, to warn the higher castes of their ‘polluting’ approach! A scavenger was to eat the remnants of his master’s food, wear his discarded clothes, and use his broken chattels. He was denied access into temples and debarred from orthodox religion. He was not allowed to hear, or repeat, the Vedas or other sacred texts of the Hindus.

Many names, one job

Sweepers and scavengers in India are known by various names, the most common among them are mehtar which, ironically, means prince or leader. The head of the ruling family of Chitral State, now in Pakistan, is called the ‘Mehtar of Chitral’. Another name for this caste is ‘Bhangi’, a derogatory term. Bhangi is derived from the Sanskrit word bhang, meaning hemp; it seems to be an allusion to their drinking habits! Bhangi also means, “broken”. This describes the scavengers who split bamboos and made mats and baskets. In Punjab, scavengers are known as Churas and Ghana, – one who sweeps scrap. Another name in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh is Balmiki or Lal Begi. These are the names of two great saints, the first being a Hindu and the other a Muslim, which denotes their presence in both the communities. Other names are Hela, Hari, Hadi, Bhumali and Halalkhor. Some other castes also do scavenging, such as Doms, Dumras, Dhanuks, Bansphor, Mazhabi, Mukhiar, Thoti, Chachati, Pakay, Relli, Ghasi, Olgana, Zadmalli, Jamphoda and Metariya, etc.

But whatever their names, all of them are at the bottom of social ladder and are regarded as unclean, both by the Hindus and Muslims. Col. Todd calls them the “refuse of mankind”. Scavengers are really a working community belonging to different racial and social groups. Most of them were forced to doing such degrading jobs. The variations in their physical features show that the members of various castes have joined this profession, at different points of time, due to economic compulsion, defeat in battle or just by birth. Stephen Fuchs (At the Bottom of Indian Society) has pointed out that “the endogamous sub-sections of this lowest of all low castes, are not without a certain social gradation.” Within the scavenging castes, some sections are superior to others, whose social status is determined, according to the origin of the section, or according to the nature of work. The lowest place is occupied by those carry night soil.

How do they do it?

Cleaning latrines is the basic work given to scavengers. This is the place where scavengers come in direct contact with human excreta and his/her hands are completely soiled. In a congested locality, the scavenger has to crawl through a narrow passage, pushing the basket with one hand, resting his body weight on the other to make his way up to the latrine chamber through a narrow opening. In the latrine, where the seat is deep inside, he has to stretch his hand to the fullest and thrust his head into the hole to clean the toilet. The scavenger has to bend forward into the narrow space to clean excreta from the toilet antechambers. In latrines, which have no receptacles, human excreta drops directly on the floor, which, with passage of time, wears the brickwork that becomes patchy and uneven. In most cases, the sidewalls are also without cement plaster; with the result, the excreta get stuck up everywhere on the sidewalls and also on the floor. The scavenger, while cleaning, has to scratch the floor and sidewalls to do maximum cleaning. It is a common sight to see scavengers, mostly women, moving with excreta on the head, stored in bamboobaskets, or in leaking drums, with the muck trickling down over face and body. Passers-by avoid such persons. If a scavenger comes in close proximity, he or she is showered with a hail of abuse. In many places, latrines are so constructed that the users do not even see their own excreta. They simply squat, perform, and go away without even caring to know who cleans their toilets. No human degradation could be more cruel and inhuman than the one suffered by scavengers.

Gandhi’s struggle

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was the first to take up the scavengers’ cause as he was deeply moved by their plight. Despite his lifetime’s effort, Gandhi could not succeed in creating a scavenging-free society. Even fifty-five years after Independence, this inhuman occupation still continues in many parts of India. The ‘institutionalised’ arrangement to force unclean work upon a section of population, and their social degradation, is yet to be erased from the face of India. Scavenging is the potential cause behind untouchability, which Mahatma Gandhi regarded as a sin against God and humanity. Of course, this utterly inhuman and dangerously unhygienic practice is on decline, thanks to the determined intervention by successive governments, civil society and public-spirited persons. Thousands of those condemned to
practise this sub-human occupation have been liberated and rehabilitated. But that so many thousands are still involved in manual scavenging is a matter of national shame. No doubt there is a national consensus on the total abolition of scavenging. The point, however, is how to achieve goal. It demands a dispassionate dissection of the diabolical disease, and a moral-political will, coupled with appropriate strategy to consign scavenging to the dustbin of India’s history.

Government intervenes

After Independence in 1947, the Central and State Governments initiated measures for salvaging the situation and bringing relief to the scavengers. Many committees and commissions were constituted, which made valuable suggest ions and recommendations. The Ministry of Welfare (now Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment), Government of India, formulated and various social welfare programmes like the National Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers and their Dependents (1991-92). The centrally sponsored scheme for the Pre-Matric Scholarships to children of those engaged in unclean occupations; and the scheme for conversion of dry latrines into pour-flush latrines. Apart from the Protection of Civil Rights Act, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act), and policy of reservation in public employment and education. The Government also constituted the National Commission for Safai of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993. All these initiatives have no doubt benefited the scavengers and made some dent into the problem. However, the problems pertaining to the liberation and rehabilitation of scavengers, and to the practice of manual handling of night-soil, still exists in many parts of the country, despite continued effort and the best of intentions.

Festering Sore

The scavengers’ problem remains an open challenge for all true believers in social democracy and the upholders of human rights. A well thoughtout and multi-pronged strategy is needed to rehabilitate the Balmikis by providing them alternative employment and integrating them into the mainstream. Half-formed ideas and halfhearted measures cannot usher in a scavengingfree society. The government and public-spirited persons will have to step in and look into why the Balmikis have not been able, till today, to overcome civil disabilities, despite the plethora of laws, legislative acts and measures. Scavengers are
backward, and often repressed because they have been assigned the lowest status in the social hierarchy. Besides social backwardness, scavengers are economically backward too. Their economic and educational backwardness has rendered them incapable of taking advantage of the state’s initiated welfare programmes and facilities. Politically too, scavengers are not organised like other Scheduled Castes.

Sulabh accepts the challenge

Dr. Pathak clearly realised that the liberation and rehabilitation of scavengers or Balmikis was not an easy task. It was indeed difficult, for the worst victims of institutionalised discrimination over the centuries, to break out of the vicious circle and join the mainstream of society. Hence, he devised a well thought-out and multi-pronged strategy to rehabilitate the Balmikis by providing them alternative employment and integrating them into the mainstream. His strategy for liberation of Balmikis through the Sulabh movement consists of a mixed package of technology, rehabilitation, with alternative employment and social reform. This holistic approach is radically different from other social reform movements in that it combines technology with social idealism. His scientific and humane approach towards abolishing scavenging is inspired by a commitment to basic human rights and based on years of research and study of the problem.

The Sulabh approach to restore human dignity to Balmikis has five distinct stages:

1. Liberation;
2. Rehabilitation;
3. Vocational training;
4. Proper education of next generation; and,
5. Social elevation

Sulabh’s determined and principled intervention has yielded good results. It has been able to liberate
and rehabilitate over 50,000 Balmikis during its three-decade old struggle.

Traditionally, no attention was paid to occupational hazards of hygiene and health, associated with scavenging. On the one hand, society required scavengers to remove night soil by hand and carry the buckets on their hip or head. On the other side, they were socially looked down upon, and boycotted for their unclean work. Moreover, people don’t realise how cruel and callous they have been towards this community and that Balmikis’ civic disabilities are largely a result of the open and prolonged exploitation. There is need to sensitise people, particularly the new generation, about the nightmarish plight of this community.

Committed to stave off the historical and prolonged injustice against Balmikis, he strove hard and finally came up with a suitable technology to convert lakhs of bucket latrines into flush toilets. The two-pit pourflush toilets developed by Sulabh caught the imagination of the nation and as a result Sulabh public and individual toilets came up all over India. At the same time, Sulabh took care to provide alternative jobs to the Balmikis, rendered jobless by large-scale conversion of privy latrines into Sulabh toilets.

Skill development is important for all but it is crucial for the less educated. To the members of depressed classes, particularly Balmikis, it has a pointed relevance. Not only are they low in literacy and education, but also possess few skills that merit market demand. Sulabh has paid special attention to skill-development and vocational training of the children from the Balmiki community. It has set up many centres and institutions across the country to equip wards from this community with vocational training in many market-friendly trades.

The problem of Balmikis is as much economical as it is socio-cultural. Traditions take time to change and require the will and initiative from all sections of society. Sulabh has evolved the modality of ‘social adoption’ with this in view. It is purely voluntary. All it costs is a will to shed social prejudices and compassion for fellow humans. A well-meaning and committed citizen formally and publicity adopts a Balmiki family. Subsequently, the two closely interact and visit each other’s home. At times, the adopting person helps the adopted family to get over minor or major problems of social adjustment. As adopters are generally persons of social standing and prestige, their approach and interaction become role models for others. Social adoption has salutary effect on the integration of the Balmikis in the mainstream of society.

So far 5,000 scavenger families have been adopted by well-known personalities like the former Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, politician-intellectual Mani Shankar Aiyar, noted journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, advocate Venu Gopal, et al, to interact with them as family friends. Dr. Pathak also led 100 harijans to the Nathdwara temple in Udaipur, Rajasthan, in 1988 to promote social cohesion. This courageous act to
defy human orthodoxy and evolve cultural integration was widely appreciated.

Education is the key

He supports the view that education holds the key to major change and development. Literacy levels and education in India are woefully low, particularly among dalits including Balmikis. In recent years, the educational infrastructure has expanded considerably and schools have been set up along commercial lines. These schools offer physical and instructional facilities, comparable to those in developed countries. But very few children coming from low-income households, particularly Balmikis have little access to these centres of quality education. Moreover, since most among them are first-generation learners, they are hardly inclined towards education of their children, especially of girl-children. With this ideal, Sulabh Public School was set up in Delhi. The school aims to prepare children from the weaker sections of society for a better life. It brings quality education within the reach of boys and girls from Balmiki families. It offers a wide range of support facilities. In addition, it regularly organises co-curricular activities with a view to promoting social integration. This could serve as a model to be replicated elsewhere in India to provide quality education to poor students.

The People’s Commission

Recently, Sulabh in close collaboration with a committed team of sociologists and distinguished individuals culled from every part of the country has set up the People’s Commission on Abolition of Scavenging. It is aimed at concretising its vision and commitment to promote welfare, development and empowerment of scavengers who still carry the stigma of untouchability, and remain marginalized – socially, economically and politically. The very fact that the Commission was inaugurated by the Prime

Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lends credibility to the Commission’s insightful approach to questions
and issues connected to problems in liberating the scavengers from social and economic bondage and providing them a life of dignity and self-respect. If there is a will power matched by a suitable technology and strategy, scavengers as Sulabh has shown could be liberated and rehabilitated with the help and co-operation from the concerned and caring citizens. The battle ahead is strewn with many obstacles but, as Sulabh has shown, they are not insurmountable. All in all, by evolving a system of rehabilitating, educating and training scavengers, and their adoption by elite members of society, entry of scavengers into temples and setting up of public toilets and baths all over the country which provide gainful employment to liberated scavengers, I have given a fresh impetus to the work initiated by Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar for an egalitarian and just society

Awards

In recognition for his contribution towards setting up a cleaner and healthier society, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak has been honoured with:

• Padma Bhushan by the President of India.
• International St. Francis Prize for the Environment, “Canticle of All Creatures” Assisi,
  Italy.
• National Citizens' Award.
• Indira Gandhi Prayavaran Puraskar.
• K.P. Goenka Memorial Award for Environment.

Books and other publications

Dr. Pathak has written several well-received books including Road to Freedom, a sociological classic on the problem of scavenging. Besides, he has been frequently contributing on diverse topics for newspapers and magazines. He also edits Sulabh India, a monthly magazine on development published in English and Hindi. Some of his notable published books are:

Sulabh Shauchalaya – A Simple Idea that Worked (1980)

Sulabh Shauchalaya – A Study of Directed Change (1982)

Power Generation from Human Excreta (1987)

An Innovative Approach to Provide Rural Sanitation (1988)

Task Force on the Problems of Scavengers – Preliminary Thoughts on the Issues (1989)

Road to Freedom – a Sociological Study on the Abolition of Scavenging in India (1991)

Action Sociology and Development (1992)

Rural Violence in Bihar (1993)

Social Justice and Development of Weaker Sections (Ed.) (1997)

Continuity and Change in Indian Society (Ed.) (1998)

Special U.N. Status

It has been a long journey, from a small town in Arrah, to 1100 towns in 29 Indian states and 7 Union Territories. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari it has crossed the frontiers into South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

After evaluating its work, Sulabh was granted Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Finally, it is gratefully acknowledged that the entire credit for starting the Sulabh Sanitation Movement in India goes to the World Health Organisation and its excellent publications, in its never-ending quest towards a cleaner and healthier world.

25th Jan. 2003