(PDF) Elimination by Law

CULPABILITY a symposium on the basic questions of modernity symposium par ticipants participants THE PROBLEM 10 Posed by Savyasaachi, former Professor of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi DATAVEILLANCE OF CHILDREN 13 Anita Rampal, former Professor and Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Delhi INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY 18 AND THE TRIBAL QUESTION Ritambhara Hebbar, Professor, Centre for Study of Developing Societies, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai SEEKING FORGIVENESS FROM 23 MOTHER EARTH! Hera Saud, Independent Researcher, Delhi ASSAM: A SITE OF EXTRACTION AND 28 THE (IN)DISPENSABLE OTHERS Prarthana Saikia, Faculty, Centre for Study of Developing Societies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai TRADE UNIONS AND REPRESENTATION: 33 A CRITIQUE Manoranjan Pegu, writes on issues of labour and tribes, currently based in Delhi EDUCATION AS A SNAKES AND LADDERS GAME 38 Deepanshu Kundu, Research Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai CRYPTOCURRENCY CHAKRAVYUH 43 Anil Hebbar, Director, Core Strategic Finance, Mumbai MORIBUND CAPITAL IN TRIBAL SOCIETIES 47 Kumar Sanjay Singh, Associate Professor, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi ADIVASIS, TEA PLANTATIONS 52 AND THE LAND QUESTION Joy Prafful Lakra, Research Scholar and activist, Sishujhumra, district Alipurduar ELIMINATION BY LAW 57 Kusum Lata, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Christ (Deemed to be University), Ghaziabad THE NEGLECTED MUSAHAR OF BIHAR 62 Priyanandini, Research Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai EXTRACTIVE IMPERATIVES: 67 ADIVASIS AND COAL EMPLOYMENT Nikas Kindo, Research Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai IS MAKING NATURE ‘RESERVES’ 72 A MODE OF OTHERING? Soummya Prakash, Research Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai THE EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE OF 77 LOSS OF COMMONS Rachanadevi R. Vaishnav, Research Scholar School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai 81 BOOKS Reviewed by Dhruv Gautam, Divya Singh, 9 Vedant Srinivas, Aarti Grover, Anjali Mittal, Vaibhav Ramani and Rajan Gurukkal IN MEMORIAM 95 Keshub Mahindra 1923-2023 COVER Designed by www.designosis.in Elimination by law KU S U M L ATA WHY does manual scavenging country and all of them had been aided continue in India when there are legal and rehabilitated. However, despite and policy mechanisms to abolish it? this proclamation manual scavenging Manual scavenging exists today with very much continues to exist. The an element of glorification. Rajiv Union government accepted the fact Shah 1 wrote about a book titled in Parliament last year that due to Karamyog, authored by the current manual scavenging2 330 people had prime minister, in the Times of India died between 2017-2020. (2012). This book was withdrawn According to ‘The Prohibition of later due to the controversy it created Employment as Manual Scavengers for justifying and glorifying manual and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013’, scavenging. It stated that ‘valmikis’ do manual scavenging is inhuman work a great job for the happiness of the of cleaning human excreta from entire society. It further spiritualized insanitary latrines or open drains and manual scavenging saying that God railway tracks. It is a caste based ‘job’ must have bestowed this job upon imposed on Dalits since ages and they them which they should continue as an are still forced to do it despite it being internal spiritual activity for centuries. declared as an offense under ‘The Ironically, such spiritualization Employment of Manual Scavengers goes along with the existing legal and and Construction of Dry Latrines policy provisions for the abolition of (Prohibition) Act, 1993.’ manual scavenging. Over the years Several governmental agencies several commissions have deliberated conducted surveys to enumerate the on the condition of manual scavengers. number of manual scavengers. ‘The As a result, various measures have been Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955’, taken to end manual scavenging and to was passed to abolish untouchability ‘rehabilitate’ them. with manual scavengers. In 1989, The Ministry of Social Justice a subcommittee of the task force and Empowerment in a press release was constituted by the Planning on 7 December 2021, claimed that Commission which enumerated the ‘Government has been able to achieve number of dry latrines in India. the target of abolition of manual In February 1989, a National scavenging.’ In the same press release, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled the ministry stated that there were Tribes Finance and Development 58,098 manual scavengers in the 2. Though the government distinguished 57 1. Rajiv Shah, ‘Modi’s Spiritual Potion to Woo between manual scavenging and septic tank Karmayogis’, The Times of India, 1 December and sewage cleaning despite the fact that the 2012. law defines all of this as manual scavenging. SEMINAR 765 – May 2023 Corporation was established to provide close to seven lakh (higher than their The tagline of SBA was Swachh financial assistance to manual scav- previous enumeration). India, Swasth India (clean India, engers (called Safai Karamcharis) and Manual scavenging was not healthy India). This tagline is in line their dependents. In 1992 a National eradicated by 2007, as envisaged in with the imperialist conceptualiza- Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilita- the Action Plan prepared by the tion of WASH (a collective term tion of Scavengers and their Depen- Planning Commission. Instead, a Self- for the water, sanitation, hygiene) dents was launched. Under ‘The Employment Scheme for Rehabilita- programme. Under the WASH pro- National Commission for Safai Karam- tion of Manual Scavengers (hence- gramme, a direct connection was charis Act 1993’, a National Commis- forth, the scheme) was launched to drawn between WASH services and sion was set up to monitor the condition provide training, loans, and subsidies public health and seen as decisive for of manual scavengers and recommend for alternative occupations. Under ‘sustainable development’. specific social measures for them. this scheme, an estimation of the In line with the UN ‘Sustainable number of manual scavengers was Development Goals’ (SDGs), the I n 1999 the National Human Rights Commission formed a group of done to show the figures for rehabili- tation. The scheme estimated the number of manual scavengers to be World Bank (WB) in its report ‘Reducing Inequalities in Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene in representatives from the Planning close to eight lakh and claimed to have the Era of Sustainable Develop- Commission and a few concerned provided financial assistance for ment Goals’3 (hereafter referred as ministries to suggest measures to rehabilitation to more than four lakh. Reducing Inequalities), argues for the abolish manual scavenging. In 2000, Again in 2010 the Ministry of reduction of inequalities in WASH the National Commission for Safai Social Justice and Empowerment services worldwide. WB identified Karamcharis submitted a report claimed that under the scheme around India as one of the 18 countries revealing that the 1993 Act was not 70,000 manual scavengers were given with low WASH indicators due to being properly implemented. It financial assistance with only 13,700 the widespread practice of open estimated the number of manual beneficiaries remaining. It was defecation. scavengers in the year 2000 to be claimed that the remaining manual almost six lakh (though the real numbers were much above this official figure). After two years of this scavengers would be assisted by 2010. In the meantime, the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers T he WB in a feature story titled ‘Ending Open Defecation and enumeration, the estimated number of and their Rehabilitation Act was Achieving a Clean and Healthy Rural scavengers was shown to be closer to enacted in 2013 and the Swachh India’ 4 states that a loan of 1500 eight lakhs by the Ministry of Social Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) launched in million US dollars was granted to Justice and Empowerment. A 15-point 2014. One of the aims of the SBA was India for improving sanitation programme was announced on the eve to eradicate manual scavenging. services. SBA carried forward WB’s of 15 August 2002 by the then Prime focus on the correlation between Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to accelerate the liberation and rehabilita- tion of manual scavengers. T he SBA was one of the biggest cleanliness campaigns led by the health and cleanliness (swachhta and swasthya) and accordingly, its ideological manifestation in In 2003, Safai Karmachari Government of India involving huge the publicity programme became Andolan, a civil society organization, corporate money with a claim of visible. working for the abolition of manual making India ‘open defecation free’ by 3. World Bank Group, ‘Reducing Inequalities scavenging, filed a writ petition in 2019. It was launched on 2 October in Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene in the the Supreme Court. In response to 2014 with a mission to make India open Era of the Sustainable Development Goals: the PIL, the Planning Commission defecation (OD) free between 2014 to Synthesis Report of the WASH Poverty prepared a ‘National Action Plan 2019 through behaviour change, Diagnostic Initiative’. The World Bank, Washington DC, 2017. for Total Eradication of Manual construction of household-owned 4. World Bank Group, ‘Ending Open Scavenging by 2007’ as a sequel to and community-owned toilets and Defecation and Achieving a Clean and Healthy the prime minister’s announcement. establishing mechanisms for monitor- Rural India’, https://www.worldbank.org/en/ 58 Once again, the National Commission ing toilet construction and usage. The news/feature/2015/12/15/ending-open- defecation-achieving-clean-and-healthy- for Safai Karamcharis estimated the first phase of SBA ended in 2019; the rural-india, 2016. Retrieved on 7 February number of scavenging in 2005 to be second phase is now ongoing. 2023. SEMINAR 765 – May 2023 Imperialist philanthropy ques- shows the relationship between health has potential in the field of construction tions the health of the poor only and the economy. The report under- of toilets, recycling of waste, and when its own interests require it to lines the importance of health for its conversion into fertilizer. Ben do so. Friedrich Engels has captured the poor and their longevity as an Schiller reports several instances to the spirit of bourgeois philanthropy underlying goal of economic develop- demonstrate the commercial viability in his work, The Condition of ment. It is seen as an important of the ‘toilet economy’. the Working Class in England.5 He component in poverty reduction. This In a report, ‘The Sanitation claims that the bourgeois first exemplary report inverses the relation- Economy in India’,8 TBC estimates alienates the proletarians from means ship between poverty and health by show that after the launch of SBA, of subsistence and then practices its holding poor health being responsible there was a boom in India’s sanitation self-complacent philanthropy upon for poverty. The Reducing Inequal- economy. The sanitaryware market them. Engels says that the bourgeoisie ities report of the bank also calculates was muted during the recession but does this by placing itself as a ‘mighty the importance of water supply, doubled its profits after SBA. The benefactors of humanity’ by giving sanitation, and hygiene in terms of the biggest beneficiaries were companies back to the ‘plundered victims’ a risks it poses for ‘human capital and producing consumer goods such as meager part of what belongs to them. economic development.’ Reckitt Benckiser, who produce Engels further states that the Another WB initiative, the consumer goods such as Dettol, Lizon bourgeois charity (read aid) is in itself Water Sanitation Programme (WSP) and Harpic. a business matter. Through aid it also lays down evidence in its report At the same time there was a bargains with the poor nations the – Global Water Security and Sanita- hike in the sale of construction possibilities of their further degrada- tion Partnership.7 It shows the adverse material for buildings and bath- tion. It negotiates for their enslave- impact of inadequate sanitation on rooms, and other sanitaryware items, ment by depriving them of any access the loss of productive time due to due to the swachhta drive, according to their natural resources. This is the poor health, as productive time of to a news report titled ‘How Swachh reason that water, an essential poor people is lost duting an illness. Bharat Abhiyan is Good News for component of WASH initiatives, is Notwithstanding, ‘labour-time’gener- Big Businesses Too’. 9 Moreover, defined as ‘blue gold’ by imperialists. ates wealth in capitalism, hence is of the benefits that SBA would garner The overwhelming ideological serious concern. for the construction industry and concerns with sanitation and poor sanitaryware economy was explicitly health are blatantly exposed when the same imperialists come up with instructions regarding the privatiza- T he economic potential of the WASH initiatives worldwide is demonstrated stated in the proposal submitted to the WB wherein a special reference is made of the construction economy. tion of water resources. WB has been in the voluminous profit that it can earn. instrumental in pressurizing the governments of third world countries to hand over the ownership of their The Toilet Board Coalition (TBC) – a coalition of big companies like Unilever and Kimberly-Clark and T he ideological edifice for the construction of shauchalyas/’izzat water resources, the ‘blue gold’ or ‘oil international ‘philanthropic’organiza- ghar’ is rooted in these economic of the twenty first century’, to giant tions, highlights the significance of gains. It is an obvious and proven corporates. the emerging ‘sanitation economy’. wisdom in India that the construction It says that the sanitation economy of toilets is no assurance that open E ngels’s analysis is clearly visible in a prototype report of the World Health and Health & World Health Organization, ‘Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development: defecation would end. Since the end of the 19th century, it is evidently proven in several instances that imperial- Organization (WHO), The Report of Executive Summary’. Report of the Commis- ism does not have a transformatory the Commission on Macroeconomics sion on Macroeconomics and Health. World Health Organization, 2001, https:// character. Hence, its reliance on pre- and Health: Investing in Health for apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42463 Economic Development, 6 which 7. The World Bank, Global Water Security and 8. The Toilet Board Coalition (TBC), ‘The Sanitation Partnership (GWSP). World Bank Sanitation Economy in India’. The Toilet 5. Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England. George Allen and Group, Washington, DC, 2022. http:// Board Coalition, 2017. 59 documents.worldbank.org/curated/ 9. Times of India, ‘How Swachh Bharat Unwin, London, 1952. en099102211102224772IDU0a8831b08028 Abhiyan is Good News for Big Businesses 6. WHO Commission on Macroeconomics b604d070aa0104893aa4ceda2 Too’, 31 July 2018. SEMINAR 765 – May 2023 capitalist social relations like caste in India, becomes the guiding force for its functioning. S anjaya Kumar Mishra and Dev AnkurWadhwan10 reportseveralinstances the High Court had to take suo moto notice of a PIL filed against the misappropriation of funds in SBA in wherein the panchayat head and other which panchayat representatives were T he SBA’s overwhelming emphasis was on toilet construction around which elected representatives siphoned off money released under SBA for toilet construction. Since the panchayat was the main accused. Panchayats are seen as a significant institution of reinforcing caste based feudal social relations and the edifice of a swachh and swasth India conceptualized as the basic unit of their role in impeding any changes in was ideologically built. However, there intervention under SBA, the panchayat caste based social relations. are several irregularities in toilet head became instrumental in managing Additionally, the technology of construction which instead of abolish- the scams. the toilet was such that it needed ing manual scavenging have reinforced Many instances were reported manual cleaning. Sadhika Tiwari13 it. from several states where money was argues that around 50 per cent of the There was a high prevalence of released but no toilets constructed. toilets constructed under SBA have toilets that were constructed through The file for the release of funds for either septic tanks with soak pits contractors under SBA in states like toilets under SBA moves through the or only single pits. Both these Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh. panchayat. Without the recommenda- mechanisms need to be cleaned It has been exposed by various news tion of panchayat representatives, the manually. Several journalists such as reports that the contractor made toilets Block Development Officer cannot Aarefa Johari,14 have highlighted the are of very poor quality and less likely to transfer money into the beneficiaries prevalence of open defecation in those be used by people. The contractors are account. The ground reports have districts which are declared open part of a network connected with the also highlighted electoral gains for defecation free such as Ahmedabad. giants of the sanitaryware market panchayat representatives and others Johari cites prominent journalist such as Hindustan Sanitaryware and in this process of fraudulently seeking Sudharak Olwe’s views; he has Industries (HSIL), Cera Sanitaryware, money transfer under SBA. documented the lives of scavengers. Kajaria Ceramics among others. The Many swachh beneficiaries were Olwe says that the possibility of contractors were also connected with unaware of the fact that money was eradication of manual scavenging is local panchayat representatives, govern- claimed in their names for toilet bleak as the SBA is creating another ment officials and banks disbursing construction and there are more than generation of scavengers who would funds to beneficiaries of SBA. four lakh such toilets which exist only be forced to clean the toilets con- The contractors used poor on paper costing Rs 540 crore, reports structed under SBA. quality materials in the construction. Amarjet Singh.11 Fake photographs It was found that open defecation was higher in contractor constructed latrines than self-constructed ones. were submitted as proof of toilet construction which were clicked somewhere else. T he SBA is not the first sanitation reform programme in India. There Self-construction of toilets was Vasudha Venugopal writes in The have been a series of government financially burdensome for people. In Economic Times12 that the mechanism initiatives and legal mechanisms to some states like Rajasthan the cost of of submitting photographic evidence address the problem of manual self-constructed toilets was nearly was supposedly introduced to break this scavenging as discussed above. 50,000 rupees. Besides poor quality local panchayat-contractor-bureaucrat- Despite this, manual scavenging toilets, there were innumerable politician nexus. In one instance, even continues with heightened apathy. It discrepancies in the allocation of is argued in this paper that the funds for the construction of toilets. 10. Dev Ankur Wadhawan, ‘Money Siphoned Off Under Swachh Bharat Mission Scheme Must to End Bogus Claims’, The Economic The subsidy which was provided Due to Possible Collusion at Ground Level’, Times, 12 November 2014. under SBA for the construction of the India Today, September 2017; Sanjaya Kumar 13. Sadhika Tiwari, ‘Indian Government Has low-quality toilets was inadequate. In Mishra, ‘Corruption in Swachh Bharat Raises Built 95 Million Toilets, But Little Has most instances, it did not even reach a Stink’, The Indian Express, 11 April 2018. Changed for Manual Scavengers’, Scroll.in, people due to the prevalence of scams 11. Amarjeet Singh, ‘In MP, 4.5 Lakh Swachh 14 December 2019. 60 benefiting those who held powerful Toilets Disappear in Rs 540 Cr Scam’, The Times of India, 10 February 2020. 14. Aarefa Johari, ‘The Mode Years: How Successful is the Swachh Bharat Mission or positions by virtue of their caste 12. Vasudha Venugopal, ‘Swachh Bharat Clean Indian Campaign’, Scroll.in, 4 February position. Mission: Government Makes Toilet Photos 2019. SEMINAR 765 – May 2023 moribund character of capitalism in where Dalits were recruited to carry its imperialist phase lies at the heart night soil and dispose animal carcasses. of the problem. V.I. Lenin in his seminal work Sanitation reforms were first Imperialism, the Highest Stage of introduced by British colonialists after Capitalism16 shows that by the end of the the revolt of 1857. When the Britishers 19th century, British colonial capital- introduced sanitation reforms, their ism was losing its pre-19th century primary concern was with regard to the characteristics. In its initial phase, health of the army. This concern was capitalism progressively, though briefly, raised due to the increasing mortality intervened in feudal social relations. rate and spread of cholera epidemic for However, by the end of the 19th century which poor sanitation and filthy the western world started witnessing a conditions were seen as the primary transition from industrial capitalism to cause. Despite documenting lengthy finance capitalism. This affected the reports on the process of removal of colonies too. Hence, sanitation reforms night soil manually and being labelled which were primarily introduced as ‘advocates of ‘halalcore’’ by local towards the end of the 19th century propertied elites, British colonials in India, under the guise of local self- ended up institutionalizing manual governance, strengthened manual scavenging. scavenging. There have been many Sanitation Commissioners and Engineers who were labelled by local caste elites in India as advocates of ‘halalcore’ (scavengers) for I mperialism that had emerged in the late 19th century, is now moribund. This recommending changes in the manual is the reason that sanitation programmes process of removal of night soil. For from colonial times till SBA only ended instance, Hector Tulloch in his report, up strengthening manual scavenging. ‘The Drainage and Sewerage of Any tiny effort of even ending open Bombay: Report Submitted to the Bench defecation was impeded because of the of Justices of That City’15 advocated alliance of local elites (e.g., panchayat mechanization of the process of removal representatives, municipal officials, of night soil by ‘halalcore’. BDOs, legislators) with the contractors hired by big companies as shown in the T he British policy of municipal taxation ensured that the propertied case of the SBA scams. Imperialism is a state that lacks the progressive aspect of transformation class showed no interest in the that was the trait of industrial capitalism. mechanization of the process of This, however, does not mean that removing night soil. It also ensured that capitalism has lost the capacity to grow. the manual labour of sweepers and Thus, the moribund state of capitalism scavengers was provided uninter- denotes a state of capital that grows ruptedly, failing which legal provisions without transformation of pre-capitalist were put in place to punish the modes of production and social scavengers. They even introduced a relations. Hence, the Indian sanitation ‘halalcore’ tax for providing scavengers system continues with the manual services to people under the municipal labour of Dalits while giving ample regime. It established a‘halalcore’ branch opportunities to the sanitation economy to thrive. 15. Hector Tulloch, The Drainage and 61 Sewerage of Bombay: Report Submitted to the 16. V.I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage Bench of Justices of That City. W.J. Johnson, of Capitalism. Progress Publishers, Moscow, London, 1872. 1916. SEMINAR 765 – May 2023