The epicenter of the political cyclone sweeping through Gujarat, triggered by the utterances of former Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, is the word "melu" (human excreta). Setting aside, for now, the question of who should pick it up, let us discuss the matter at hand.
On this issue, Shankarsinh has a far stronger moral authority to speak about "melu" than any Chief Minister Gujarat has had to date, because it was during his government — alongside his colleague Dilipbhai Parikh — that the first law in India banning this inhuman practice was implemented in Gujarat. Subsequently, 18 other states followed suit and enforced this law. Beyond enacting the law, the Shankarsinh government in Gujarat also constituted a commission on the matter and, for the first time, allocated ₹150 crore in the budget over a five-year period for the rehabilitation of sanitation workers.
Prior to this, the Government of India had indeed passed a law, but since this subject falls under "state jurisdiction," the central government could frame legislation only upon the request of two or more states — and even then, the law would come into effect only when a state's legislative assembly passed a resolution to enforce it. Thus, while the law existed on paper, no state had actually implemented it.
After Independence, Navsarjan Trust filed the first Public Interest Litigation on this issue in the Gujarat High Court in 1996–97. My journalist friend Rajiv Shah was instrumental in bringing this issue to the forefront of newspapers across the country. Justice Rameshbhai Mehta, who presided at the time, played a profoundly decisive role. The court appointed an inquiry committee of three advocates — Harubhai Mehta, Girishbhai Patel, and B.N. Vakil — as members. Their report concluded that the practice of carrying human waste on one's head was widespread in Gujarat. The law was a direct consequence of this finding. What the BJP government has done on this issue after 2002 is a question only they can answer.
At the Centre, the Narasimha Rao government, and subsequently the Manmohan Singh government, took this matter very seriously. A documentary film highlighting this issue, titled "Lesser Humans", was produced by Navsarjan in collaboration with the organization Drishti. The film gained worldwide circulation. I was invited to serve in an advisory capacity at the Planning Commission, which planned an allocation of ₹1,000 crore for the rehabilitation of sanitation workers. Two members of the Planning Commission made an extraordinarily significant contribution on this subject: Dr. Syeda Hameed and Balchandra Mungekar.
I met with Shankarsinh on this matter about three times. My colleague and friend Madhusudan Mistry joined him and became a Member of Parliament. Later, Praveen Rashtrapal followed. I declined to enter politics because I had taken an oath at the graves of my companions from the Golana massacre that I would never enter politics, so that I could continue the work of eradicating untouchability. Therefore, I am not a registered member of any political party.
If we were to ask the current Chief Minister whether the practice of carrying "melu" continues in Gujarat, he would not be able to answer. He would also be unable to say how many people are engaged in this inhuman work. In the past, when asked to name even a single village in Gujarat where untouchability had been eradicated — as proof of "Gujarat's development" — the BJP Chief Minister could not provide an answer.
Being a human rights activist is extraordinarily difficult. Right behind my house in Shanti Faliya lived a colony of sanitation workers. I had raised objections to the constant foul abuses and the gambling that took place right behind my home. On one such occasion, in a fit of rage, they set my house on fire. The police arrived but sided with them, because the person who had instigated them was a BJP leader from Nadiad. Around that time, there were numerous incidents of attacks on Christians in the Dangs. The very sanitation workers who had rolled up their sleeves against me were the ones whose rehabilitation commission I had helped establish through Navsarjan's efforts — and I became its first chairperson. District Collector Bhagyesh Jha rushed to my home immediately, and thanks to my friend Jagdish Pandian, the Deputy Home Secretary, I was spared further harassment. The deeply respected Elaben Bhatt sent me a postcard of consolation. Elaben's own house had been pelted with stones during the 1981 anti-reservation agitation for her stand in favor of reservations. The BJP played an active role in that 1981 anti-reservation movement.
Therefore, in Gujarat, if people other than the Valmiki community were to carry "melu" on their heads, that would be called a revolution; and if sanitation workers themselves were willing to give up this work, that too would be a historic revolution. I recently had a meal at the home of one such family in Rajkot that had given up this work.
In the land of Gandhi, Sardar, and Dr. Ambedkar (where he was ostracized), for people to accept the practice of carrying "melu" on their heads is itself an act of cowardice. Leaders like Gandhiji, Mama Phadke, Parikshitlal Majumdar, and Thakkar Bapa devoted their entire lives to this issue. Among my friends who joined the effort to eradicate the practice of head-loading in Gujarat are Prof. Harshad Desai, Indukumar Jani, Achyutbhai Yagnik, Indiraben Hirve, Ghanshyam Shah, elder Ishwarbhai Patel, Rohit Shukla, Madhusudan Mistri, Gagan Sethi, Prakash Shah, Elaben Bhatt, Anil Bhatt, Justice Ravani, D.N. Pathak, and many others. None of them belonged to the "Scheduled Caste" identity. It is my firm belief that countless people in Gujarat who do not identify as Dalit will come forward, believing that this practice is a stain on Gujarat's name.
But "melu" is a business in Gujarat. A fellow friend drew my attention to the fact that in the Valmiki community, sanitation workers insist only on rotla (flatbread) as payment. Then piles of this rotla are dried on the rooftops of their homes. Cattle herders purchase these dried rotlas to soak in water and feed to Mother Cow. Touchable rotla becomes untouchable, and then becomes touchable again as it enters the belly of Mother Cow. There have also been reports — though unverified — of leftover valu (food waste) being sold in Ahmedabad.
Gujarat is filled with as much casteism as it is with cow dung — more so than any other state. True development in Gujarat will only occur when the religion based on the caste system is purified. This is not the problem of any single religion; all religions have been tainted by it.
In tribal areas, Shankarsinh's statements expose the reality. How much land did tribals own at the time of Independence, and how much do they have today? A statue of Sardar was erected in tribal territory because the waters of the Narmada were needed to beautify the Riverfront. Navsarjan filed a PIL in the Gujarat High Court because the tribals living along the banks of the Narmada do not have drinking water, even though that very water flows into the Riverfront.
It was as though an auction was being held on the price of carrying "melu." Someone said they would pay ₹1,00,000 if Shankarsinhji carried "melu." The remark is telling — the pile of black money from Gujarat's "development" has already accumulated in the homes of certain individuals. A weakness of the Dalit movement is that it lacks mature political leadership. There are even rumors that some Dalit MLAs sell out for ₹10–15 crore after being elected. The two BJP-merged Dalit MLAs who got Navsarjan's registration cancelled are themselves the funders of Navsarjan's undoing. Dalits being destroyed by Dalit hands, and Dalits and Muslims being pitted against each other — this is the cowardly game of dice played by Gujarat's politicians.
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*Founder, Dalit Shakti Kendra and Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad
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