06-17-2007, 08:41 AM
<!--emo&:ind--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/india.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='india.gif' /><!--endemo--> Ray of hope for manual scavengers of Gujarat
17 Jun, 2007 l 0208 hrs ISTlMeenakshi Kumar/TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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NEW DELHI: What could a motley bunch of students and faculty from the prestigious Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have to offer to an obscure village in Gujarat? A lot, actually.
For the much discriminated manual scavengers of Paliyad, the graduate student researchers will bring a ray of hope. The ecological sanitation toilet, being developed by them, will change the life of this downtrodden community. It could actually be the beginning of a social change.
For the 12 students (including one from Harvard and another from Tufts University), a visit to the sleepy village last June turned out to be an eye-opener. "I was touched when a person told me that she thought of herself not as a human but rather an animal, 'something' outside the caste or human race.
This person internalised the oppression," says Joel Campos-Alvis, part of the team who now works as a risk analyst with Inter-American Development Bank. A Peruvian by birth, and a soccer fan, she let go of an opportunity to be at the World Cup last year to be in India.
Rachel Peletz, MIT engineering graduate, was so moved by her Gujarat experience that she gave up an offer of a job as an environmental engineering consultant in San Francisco and opted to work for an NGO in Canada. "I figured I could either work at a private firm for people that already had clean water or work for people who are really in need of clean water and sanitation."
The students, led by MIT professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal, had visited Paliyad to assess the viability of setting up an ecosan toilet and whether it could solve the problem of manual scavenging. While there, they spent the time conducting a survey to gather data on economic livelihoods, caste-based discrimination, access to government programmes, occupational tasks and health. The final report that they came up with recommended a modified design of ecosan toilet.
"We realised that we had to address this issue of manual scavenging as a sanitation and health problem and not as a human rights one," says Rajagopal, director, MIT Program on Human Rights & Justice and the brain behind the project. "The government continues to deny the existence of manual scavenging even though it's so obviously around us," he says. "Given this scenario, it's not possible to talk of the ecosan project as a human rights issue." The project is being funded by the Omidyar Foundation, set up by the founder of eBay and will be implemented later this year.
Ecosan is a widely available technology, which works on the premise that human waste can be converted into valuable fertiliser that would be safe to handle. An ecosan model separates the urine from the faeces, both are collected separately, later dehydrated and turned into compost. Rajagopal and his team have slightly tweaked the traditional model to suit Indian conditions. They have introduced a small window through which a rake can be inserted when required; thus saving the people from coming in direct contact with human waste. This model not only makes it safe to handle waste but will also gradually rule out the need for manual scavengers.
A basic ecosan unit would cost about Rs 2,000-3,000 while a pucca one would be anywhere between Rs 10,000-12,000. Rajagopal was taken by surprise when at a demonstration in a gram sabha, he received 80 orders. The demand has grown since June and there is, he says, a market for roughly 500 individual units and a few public sanitation units. Of course, the scavengers of Paliyad are enthusiastic to see an end of their age-old profession.
"In Paliyad, the scavengers are an unusually active lot, having litigated the state before and having been sensitised by NGO Navsarjan to the violation of their rights. Thus, they are somewhat easier to bring on board," says Rajagopal.
The team is also looking at creating alternative jobs for the scavengers. During their stay, they chanced upon colourful quilts made by the women, which unfortunately they couldn't sell in the local market. "We brought some of them to the US as samples. They were a sell-out. Now, we are working with them so that we can bring their products to the US and sell it to a bigger market," says Elizabeth Margarette Clay, policy advisor to the governor of Massachussetts.
As for Rajagopal, he is confident that the ecosan toilet will take-off in Gujarat. This could be the beginning of the end of a human shame.
17 Jun, 2007 l 0208 hrs ISTlMeenakshi Kumar/TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Save
Write to Editor
NEW DELHI: What could a motley bunch of students and faculty from the prestigious Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have to offer to an obscure village in Gujarat? A lot, actually.
For the much discriminated manual scavengers of Paliyad, the graduate student researchers will bring a ray of hope. The ecological sanitation toilet, being developed by them, will change the life of this downtrodden community. It could actually be the beginning of a social change.
For the 12 students (including one from Harvard and another from Tufts University), a visit to the sleepy village last June turned out to be an eye-opener. "I was touched when a person told me that she thought of herself not as a human but rather an animal, 'something' outside the caste or human race.
This person internalised the oppression," says Joel Campos-Alvis, part of the team who now works as a risk analyst with Inter-American Development Bank. A Peruvian by birth, and a soccer fan, she let go of an opportunity to be at the World Cup last year to be in India.
Rachel Peletz, MIT engineering graduate, was so moved by her Gujarat experience that she gave up an offer of a job as an environmental engineering consultant in San Francisco and opted to work for an NGO in Canada. "I figured I could either work at a private firm for people that already had clean water or work for people who are really in need of clean water and sanitation."
The students, led by MIT professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal, had visited Paliyad to assess the viability of setting up an ecosan toilet and whether it could solve the problem of manual scavenging. While there, they spent the time conducting a survey to gather data on economic livelihoods, caste-based discrimination, access to government programmes, occupational tasks and health. The final report that they came up with recommended a modified design of ecosan toilet.
"We realised that we had to address this issue of manual scavenging as a sanitation and health problem and not as a human rights one," says Rajagopal, director, MIT Program on Human Rights & Justice and the brain behind the project. "The government continues to deny the existence of manual scavenging even though it's so obviously around us," he says. "Given this scenario, it's not possible to talk of the ecosan project as a human rights issue." The project is being funded by the Omidyar Foundation, set up by the founder of eBay and will be implemented later this year.
Ecosan is a widely available technology, which works on the premise that human waste can be converted into valuable fertiliser that would be safe to handle. An ecosan model separates the urine from the faeces, both are collected separately, later dehydrated and turned into compost. Rajagopal and his team have slightly tweaked the traditional model to suit Indian conditions. They have introduced a small window through which a rake can be inserted when required; thus saving the people from coming in direct contact with human waste. This model not only makes it safe to handle waste but will also gradually rule out the need for manual scavengers.
A basic ecosan unit would cost about Rs 2,000-3,000 while a pucca one would be anywhere between Rs 10,000-12,000. Rajagopal was taken by surprise when at a demonstration in a gram sabha, he received 80 orders. The demand has grown since June and there is, he says, a market for roughly 500 individual units and a few public sanitation units. Of course, the scavengers of Paliyad are enthusiastic to see an end of their age-old profession.
"In Paliyad, the scavengers are an unusually active lot, having litigated the state before and having been sensitised by NGO Navsarjan to the violation of their rights. Thus, they are somewhat easier to bring on board," says Rajagopal.
The team is also looking at creating alternative jobs for the scavengers. During their stay, they chanced upon colourful quilts made by the women, which unfortunately they couldn't sell in the local market. "We brought some of them to the US as samples. They were a sell-out. Now, we are working with them so that we can bring their products to the US and sell it to a bigger market," says Elizabeth Margarette Clay, policy advisor to the governor of Massachussetts.
As for Rajagopal, he is confident that the ecosan toilet will take-off in Gujarat. This could be the beginning of the end of a human shame.