In an attempt to bring focus back on the inhuman task of manual scavenging, which continues to exist even today, Jai Bhim Mandram, a social organisation has launched a campaign with socially-conscious Tamil film celebrities.
Actors Sathyaraj, Vivekh and film-makers Pandiraj, Karu. Palaniappan, Ram and others have strongly supported the campaign against manual scavenging through a video clips, some of which have gone viral.
In the message, Sathyaraj said while foreign countries have mechanised these jobs, India continues to have human beings cleaning human waste because of the caste system. “Lets annihilate caste and get rid of manual scavenging,” he said. Other celebrities had a similar message.
Speaking about the campaign, Jeyarani, co-ordinator, Jai Bhim Mandram, said that the idea of the whole campaign was to make the common people speak about manual scavenging in society.
“There is a tendency in society to think that manual scavenging is just an issue faced by a specific community and that it doesn’t concern the general population at all. We wanted to change that perception through this campaign, which is why we roped in well-known public faces to flag this serious issue. This is about telling the people that manual scavenging exists because of the caste system,” says Ms. Jeyarani.
Giving an example of apathy of the public towards those who clean septic tanks and drains, she points out how sanitary workers were left to remove tonnes of waste after the December 2015 floods. “During the floods, people of Chennai came together to help each other for rescue efforts. But, who cleaned the mess in the city? Tonnes of waste were cleared by sanitary workers who worked without proper protective gear,” she said.
Jeyarani said that a play called ‘Manjal’ will be showcased on June 30.
