During discussions with Mr. Shyam, on various social issues, the issue of the ancient practice of the ‘Night Soil’ cleaners came up. He said this was a horrific practice. He abhorred it. I did not understand what is there to hate about it!
The Night soil cleaners are those who come every day to the house to clean the human excreta or shit. This is also known as human waste. This waste refers to the waste products of the human digestive system, menses, and human metabolism including urine and faeces. This practice of cleaning or taking away the human waste in a basket existed for centuries. The cleaners would come with a basket or a bucket, manually collects the waste to dispose it in the fields. They would go from house to house to collect the human waste.
This practice, especially in 20th century, is described as inhuman, barbaric and condemnable. This practice was also given the color of casteism, unouchability and violation of human rights.
Better bathrooms, sewerage systems, cleanliness etc. are developed. The human waste is now flushed from the bathrooms directly into the sewerage systems. The waste being produced is too much. The sewerage systems are unable to handle it. As a consequence, they are getting clogged, blocked and are overflowing. At many places daily wagers are employed to step into the manholes to unclog drainage. Even this practice too attracted criticism on the basis of caste, untouchability and human rights. At places, people died in the manholes due to toxic gases.
This led to the invention & production of sewerage cleaning machines, sewerage engineering, sewerage tax and much more! There are cities and countries that are using robots for sewerage cleaning. But this too is failing. For example, imagine the human waste produced by 30 million people of Delhi every day! How to clean the waste of 30 million people? Which robot can clean? I stop here. I do not want to get into the mess of sewerage engineering systems. That is neither my area nor the thought right now. All I ask is the following:
What is wrong if we manually clean the human waste? Why this stupid society considers it as a barbaric practice? I do not mind doing it myself. This human waste is, after all, a part of us. Human waste indicates a healthy body. If that is stopped, then our digestive system collapses.
Further, if we do not clean our own waste then who would do? Why talk the bullshit of caste, untouchability and human rights? The practice of manually cleaning human waste aids to our efforts of keeping our environment clean. It has nothing to do with caste or untouchability. This is an honorable profession. This is an act that aims at human well-being. Remember, human waste is a part of humans. There is nothing to feel bad.
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
