JOIN USLast week, Sanjeev Parmar stood at a busy south Delhi intersection debating with his apprentice whether or not they should sweep a particular patch of street. The debate ensued after Parmar noticed tiny droplets of rain falling from the sky. The duo decided to sweep as Parmar insisted that the rains would not stop until late evening that day. The apprentice obliged like a good student would, and both hurried up cleaning the street even before heavy rains lashed the city.
“Didn’t I tell you it’s going to rain heavily? I know the weather of Delhi,” Parmar told his ‘student’ as it poured interminably. Parmar and many others like him, nearing their retirement ensure that their children enter the same profession, but before that begins the imparting of knowledge. The weather update is more like a part of the
same process.
Parmar entered into the business of ‘cleaning’ the city much before clicking photographs while carrying a broom became a trend. “I saw in news, actors and politicians with brooms, in front of cameras. They didn’t know how to do it. It is a skill,” says Parmar in the manner of one who knows his job and adds, “At least one of my children will enter the same line of work.”
Reportedly, out of more than 65,000 sweepers currently employed under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), an overwhelming number of people have been into municipality work because their families were into it. And if anything, the children of these sweepers are ‘destined to continue’ in the so-called ‘tradition’.
A supervisor of the MCD who wished not to be named had a theory of his own to narrate. “Over the years I have worked here, I notice many of the employees take pride in what they do. Just like people who are in army or in medicine, want their children to grow up to be army men and doctors, the same feeling is carried by workers of the MCD. Taking pride in what you do is good, but then it also deprives them from pursuing other career options.
To add to their misery is the lack of opportunities,” said the official. ‘The lack of opportunities’ according to Barsha Chakraborty an activist is a ‘systematic one’. “Most of the people who sweep belong to one particular community. If this is not enough evidence of caste-based practices then what is?” remarked Chakraborty. She believes that the people who join the ‘trade’ are actually being forced into it rather than them opting for it on their own. “There is an existing system and established norms. So it is no surprise that economically backward communities form the major chunk of this profession because they have already accepted their fate. The system won’t allow them to break free even if they want to,” Chakraborty adds.
Y S Maan, director of Press Information, MCD, while speaking to Metrolife agreed that most of the sweepers do belong to one particular community but added that
privatisation is slowly breaking the trend.
“These days a regular employee can earn anything between Rs 25,000 - Rs 30,000. However if you compare the salaries with that of some other nations, they are quite
low. Increasing salaries might break the status quo and encourage many others
to choose the profession,” Maan said.
Chakraborty however disagreed with the MCD official. “The regular employees come from one community but what about the daily wagers. They belong to poorer regions of India. Basically, it’s the hierarchy in the system which is a problem and that won’t go away by giving more money. This trend will only strengthen the status quos rather than breaking it,” she said.