Inheritance of duty

 

Yogesh KC was taking a team of sanitation workers to Baglung. He ordered tea for everyone at a hotel, not realizing that the hotel would make them wash their own glasses. They came from the traditional caste of cleaners, considered very low on the caste hierarchy, and it was common for them to be denied access to taps, temples, and public places like hotels.

“That was twenty years ago,” says Yogesh. “Things have improved for them as regards social stigma. But many other things like their health and education are still problematic.”

In Kathmandu, most people who sweep streets and pick up liter from public places are from the Chyame caste, and such problems are common occurrences for them.

Arun Chyame, 40, is one of them. The unlettered man has been working at the municipality for more than twenty years. His duty consists of sweeping, shoveling garbage on to trucks, and cleaning drains when they get stuck.

Arun cleans the drains by hand, and does not use the protective gear that the government provides.

“If I wear a mask, I can’t breathe,” he laughs. He washes his hands before eating, but sometimes he forgets. “Of course my family yells at me,” says Arun. “But I’ve been doing this work for so long that I’ve gotten used to it.”

Arun believes that through practice, he has acquired the power to fight the negative influence of the filth that he works with.

Like Arun, most sanitation workers have taken their work as a fact of life.

“Most people would feel disgusted by this kind of work, but I don’t feel that anymore,” says Laxmi Chyame, 50. Instead, what she and Arun worry about is that their children won’t get to continue their profession.

“This has been our profession for generations,” says Lakshmi, “and our children should get the same opportunities. But the government hasn’t been taking any new entrants for a long time.” Her six children, ranging in age from 30 to 20 are jobless, and only work when they find temporary employment.

Yogesh KC, President of Sanitation Workers’ Union, informs that twenty years ago, there were 1,600 sanitation workers in Kathmandu Municipality. Now the number has dwindled to 800. One reason is that some of the workers are getting out of the difficult profession. The other is that the government is slowly handing sanitation work over to private companies to reduce costs. But private companies don’t pay as much as the government does, and the job is not secure, either.

“For those traditional cleaners who remain, their main concern is that their future generations should also have secure employment,” he informed.

The younger generation, on their part, is not so sure that they want to continue on the same path.

Kamala Deula, 28, works in sanitation at the local community hospital but hopes her children will be able to get out of the cycle and do something else.

“Our work is good in a way because we help to keep the environment clean,” says Kamala who has studied up to grade seven. “But we are also exposed to germs all the time, and I dislike that part of my work.”

The other part that the younger generation is worried about is the shame that their caste brings with it. In the past, when people walked past them on the streets, they used to gather their clothes around them and walk as far as possible so as not to touch them. Society has changed a lot, and they are not as discriminated against as before, especially in public places like shops and temples. But following the deeply rooted living patterns of Kathmandu, they still live in the same communities where everyone knows them. And many older and traditional minded people continue these discriminations.

“Even when people swear, they name us,” says Arun. “I’ve heard higher-caste people say many times that they aren’t like Chyame, and that’s disheartening.”

Hence, many younger people, including Arun’s children, don’t like to be identified as Chyame anymore, instead choosing to call themselves “Newar” or “Nepali.”

Kamala also dislikes that this profession has been handed down through generations.

“I’m not ashamed of where I come from,” says she. “After all, my parents raised me by working hard in this profession.”

Besides, Kamala knows that history is not something you can run away from, especially in a place where everyone knows your history.

Instead, what young people want is options for themselves.

“Sanitation is something that the entire community should take part in,” says Kamala. “If that happens, there can be a way out of this hazardous profession for anyone who wishes to leave.”

The problem, says Yogesh, is that so few of them are educated that they don’t see any other viable option. Even though the Sanitation Workers’ Union encourages education by facilitating every youngster who completes SLC, only as few as 10% of the youngsters manage to graduate from school.

“We can’t educate our children much, only a little,” says Laxmi. “And when even educated people have a hard time finding jobs, what chance do we have?”

Having accepted their situation, they want to find ways to make the best of it through secure employment.

And the other thing that sanitation workers strive for is respect. They want the stigma attached to their caste to be replaced by a fair evaluation of their work. They want the discriminations to end, and to be treated as equal members of the society by the so-called ‘higher castes.’

BOX

Yogesh KC, President of Sanitation Workers’ Union, has worked in sanitation for more than twenty years, and knows the workers’ issues intimately.

What are the biggest challenges for sanitation workers?

Health is their biggest challenge. Street-level workers often fall ill with cough and develop asthma over time. Hepatitis B and C are also very common among them since they have to handle metals and glass everyday which cut them.

What can be done to better protect their health?

The government provides them a set of protective gears which includes a mask, a pair of gloves and boots. But only one set is provided every year, which wears out very soon. They need more. And when they fall ill, they get no subsidies from the government, which is not fair, considering what a great risk their job is to their health. The Sanitation Workers’ Union has been asking the government to allocate one or more government hospitals where they can get facilities and medicines at discounted prices.

What other demands does the Sanitation Workers’ Union have?

The streets have to be clean before everyone else is up and about, so sanitation workers begin working at 5 AM. We want these hours to be counted as overtime and given 50 % extra compensation.

Words: 1146 /1,134 Sewa / November 13 / For The Week Edited by Peter