Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I’m Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Usha Chaumar was born to a poor family in Alwar, India. For most of her life, she had a bad job. Usha worked as waste collector. She visited homes in her town and emptied human waste from toilets. She also gathered household waste from the town. She was a waste worker – a sanitation worker. Her employer only gave her seven to ten dollars a month for this work. And even worse than the job, people did not respect her. She was untouchable. People did not want to go near Usha.
Voice 2
For centuries, people in India followed a system that separated people into groups. This is called the caste system. The caste system limited a person’s work, and social position. It limited who people could marry. It limited where people lived. It limited where people ate and drank. India made this system illegal in 1950. But many people continue to follow caste traditions.
Voice 1
At the top of the caste system are the Brahmins. This is the caste of priests, scholars, and teachers. Under the Brahmins are the Kshatriya. This is the caste of the military and kings. Next is the Vaishyas, the caste of traders. After that is the Shadras. This is the caste of farmers, service workers, and some artists. The bottom caste is the Dalits. This is the lowest caste. These are the “untouchables”.
Voice 2
The caste system causes great suffering, especially for untouchables. Untouchables have to do the worst jobs – the jobs no–one else will do. They are often born into their work. This was true for Usha, and many other waste workers. She did not choose her job – but it caused her great difficulty and sadness.
Usha tells of her experiences buying rice as an “untouchable”:
Voice 3
“Store owners would drop the rice to me. They would not touch me. They made me put my money down, away from them. They threw water over it before taking it.
Voice 1
Usha was not the only untouchable sanitation worker in her town. Three hundred [300] other women had the same job. And untouchables do this job in many other areas of India too. This job is necessary, wherever people use dry toilets. These toilets do not have pipes to carry waste away. A person must empty these toilets. India has outlawed dry toilets, but it takes time to replace the old toilets. So the work still exists. The women working to clean the waste want different jobs. But since the women are “untouchable”, they cannot find other work.
Voice 2
But, one man wanted to help them. Doctor Bindeshwar Pathak is from the highest caste. He remembers as a child being punished for touching a woman from the lowest caste. As he grew older he saw how other people lived. He saw the women of the “untouchable” caste, and their difficult situations.
Voice 1
Dr. Pathak wanted to help these women. In 1970, Dr. Pathak started the group Sulabh International. The group works to encourage human rights, clean the environment, teach people, and manage waste in better ways. Managing waste is how Dr. Pathak hopes to help the women in Alwar.
Voice 2
Sulabh International has developed new kinds of toilets. They are replacing the dry toilets. They are cleaner, and work better. This also means that women like Usha are not needed any more. But Dr. Pathak has a solution for this problem as well.
Voice 1
In 2003, Dr. Pathak started a school for the sanitation workers. Usha has attended this school. Here, she learned to read and write. She learned new skills for work. This included learning to make clothes – including beautiful blue saris. These saris are a common kind of clothing for Indian women.
Voice 2
But Dr. Pathak did not just want to give job training. Dr. Pathak wanted to change people’s minds about these women. When he started the school in Alwar, he took the women to the places that they were not permitted to enter. First, he took the women to a Hindu temple. He then took them to a costly restaurant. The owner of the eating place did not want to let the women in. Like most people, he had existing ideas about “untouchables.” He thought they did not know how to behave – and might steal or break something. But Dr. Pathak knew this was not true. To prove this, he offered to pay for any damage. At the end of the meal, everything was fine and the restaurant owner apologized. This proved to the women that opinions could change!
Voice 1
Dr Pathak’s work became famous across the country. People outside of the country also began to hear about his positive influence. And in 2008 the United Nations invited Dr. Pathak and the former sanitation workers to travel to New York. At a special event, the women took part in a fashion show. They wore the saris they had made, to show their beautiful work. Usha was one of these women. Only a few years ago, she was cleaning human waste. But on this day Usha was crowned the “Princess of Sanitation Workers”.
Voice 2
And after Usha returned to India, she had another honour. On July 27, 2008 Usha met Pratibha Patil, the president of India. The president talked with Usha about Usha’s life and experiences. The president even touched her.
Usha spoke about how her life has changed:
Voice 3
“I never imagined that I would get a chance to stand in front of the president and speak. I never imagined that I would get on an airplane. My life has changed.”
Voice 2
Usha thanks Dr. Pathak and his group Sulabh International.
Voice 3
“About sixty [60] of us have been empowered. We sew, cook and make clothes. Our self–respect has been returned. And we now expect a promising future for our children.”
Voice 1
Dr. Pathak and Sulabh International continue to help people throughout India and the world. Sulabh has built three other schools like the one Usha attended. The group says that it has provided new jobs to over thirty five thousand [35,000] people. It has made two hundred forty [240] towns waste–worker free.
Voice 2
More than help for waste workers, Sulabh has provided new toilets for people’s homes. It has also placed public pay toilets in city centres in India, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Afghanistan. Sulabh International is not just making life better for waste–workers. It is improving the health of people all over the world one toilet at a time!
Dr. Pathak believes that bringing change in people’s lives is easy.
Voice 4
“We have everything we need to change things. It is SO SO simple. If only people have the desire.”
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