Leave no Dalit Woman Behind
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwbkIvLwr_4s_pUNmPCXl7w/videos
"I'm doing this work due to Compulsion, I don't have any other sources to earn a living"- Sonia
Sonia works as a Manual scavenger in Uttar Pradesh. She didn't get any formal education. For the last 15 years she has been working as a manual scavenger. Even though she is uneducated she had made sure all her children go to school.
Geeta hails from Ranipur, Uttar Pradesh. She left the job of manual scavenging and now she works in a field where she gets 130INR daily. My husband worked as a Welder but after lockdown he couldn't get a single job. So he is now working as a daily wage earner. The International Labour Organization (ILO) predicted that due to the pandemic and the lockdown, about 400 million workers would be poverty-stricken. When we get work we eat otherwise we have nothing to eat.
Nabila hails from Mau, Uttar Pradesh. She gets paid INR 100 per bathroom she cleans. Nabila's husband also works as a sanitation worker. My daughter who is married also works as a sanitation worker in a degree college. Nabila face discrimination because of the work she does, but she had no other option than to ignore them.
Because of the lack of poverty and Caste barriers, women like Nablia work as manual scavengers. Not only Nablia, her parents but now her daughter is also working as a sanitation worker.
According to a report by TISS 90% of manual scavengers have not been provided proper equipment to protect them from faeces borne illness. The use of hands by women manual scavengers, along with the certainty that they will have direct skin contact with human waste, is a very dangerous combination that is contributing to serious health conditions. Chronic skin diseases and lung diseases are very common among women manual scavengers. She is Sunita Devi, she has been working as a manual scavenger for the last 20 year.
Sunita ji fell ill as she was exposed to faeces born illness while working as a manual scavenger. Sunita ji had to take a loan in order to meet the expense for her treatment. Sunita ji faced extreme caste based discrimination because she belonged to the marginalized section. Watch the full video to know the story of Sunita.