The condition of 40-year-old Mani R’s fingers and toes embodies the cruelties of manual scavenging. Nearly three decades ago, a friend told him he would get paid for carrying faecal matter from a pit in Austin Town. Later, he was offered another similar job, and eventually, this was the only life he knew.
“It is hard to do a job like this unless you are drunk. It became a habit after a point. I would earn whatever I could cleaning pits, and then spend it on alcohol, even drinking till I collapsed on the streets,” he recalled.
The vicious cycle, however, had an everlasting impact, and soon his fingers and toes became infected. “I could not afford treatment, so I drank more to deal with the pain. Now, my fingers and toes have become permanently curled,” says Mani.
Today, Mani and others like him may have been rescued from the dehumanising work of manual scavenging, but alcoholism continues to haunt them. Realising this, the State government came up with a 10-day de-addiction session as part of the rehabilitation process for manual scavengers.
In the first batch, 60 persons were taken to a remote village in Dakshina Kannada for a one-month training programme conducted by a non-governmental organisation. While seven of them left the camp for a tipple, the rest went through the entire programme. “Those who completed the programme will be eligible to avail themselves of subsidies and loans to start afresh. For those who couldn’t, we will insist they return and complete the programme,” said Padmanabha, district manager, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation, which is facilitating the sessions. The corporation plans to rehabilitate 186 manual scavengers in the city through this programme.
After attending the sessions, Mani vows sobriety. “My life has changed. I look forward to celebrating 100 days of being sober. I’m even planning to start a shop,” he says.
For Devraj, his experiences with alcoholism have strengthened his resolve. “In a drunk state, I’ve assaulted those who tried to dissuade me: my family, friends and even the police. Now, it is time to patch up and start afresh,” he says.
