Mumtaz Kaladagi (26) collects money from women who use the public toilet at the government bus-stand here. Her brother and cousin too do the same job at the gents’ toilet.
Neither Ms. Kaladagi nor her brothers have ever been to school.
Ever since they were children they have been doing what most of their family members have been doing for generations to earn a living — cleaning public toilets.
“We sit here the whole day in spite of the stink and the lack of hygiene,” said Ms. Kaladagi.
70 families
Some 70 Muslim families who belong to the Bhangi community have been living here since decades.
“Our families were into manual scavenging until three decades ago when Bijapur city did not have a drainage system,” said Mohammad Babu Kaladagi (40).
“Though the practice of manual scavenging has stopped, we continue to be employed to clean toilets and bathrooms in government and private hospitals and in government offices,” he said.
Saddam (26), who has got to the contract to maintain the public toilets at the bus-stand here, said many people from the community are called every day to clean choked drains and sewer lines.
Saddam said he had studied till Class 5, but none of the women in his community had ever been to school. “Only a handful of men from our community have been to school. Almost all of them had discontinued their studies before reaching the matriculation level,” Mr. Saddam said.
Mr. Kaladagi said the level of social stigma against their community was so high that it was very difficult to even find a ‘maulana’ (priest) to perform their marriage rituals.
Though they belong to a backward community, none of them is aware of government facilities being offered to them.
Also, none of the community members wish that the next generation continues this occupation.
“We had no choice but to do all these works. Certainly, we don’t want our children to do this. We want to lead a dignified life,” they said.
