The stench that surrounds a fisherwoman is yet tolerated in a second class compartment of a daily local train with people swearing under their breath, covering their nose and loathing the fact of co-travelling with such women. But it just cannot be tolerated when a sweeper fails to surface even one day or neglects areas where garbage has been dumped.
Atul Pethe’s Kachra- Kondi, a 55-minute documentary on the plight of the conservancy workers in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), is a bold attempt to raise the question on “who is to be blamed after all for their misery”. The video has it all — the man with the fan-tailed broom, the old sweeper woman trying to gather rubbish, a man being hoisted out of the dirty manhole…
All fingers have been raised on “we” citizens, who shamelessly dump garbage wherever and whenever we please, and the authorities who fail to provide the cleaners with protective devices to do the “risky jobs”.
What is risky? asks an official. “Don’t the army guys in the borders get killed? Every job has its risk…” Swimming in the slime inside a manhole filled with toxic gases and fumes without protective goggles and gear, is it risky? Digging into the garbage pile with mere hands sans gloves, is it risky? Handling decayed carcass and dead bodies inside so-called cold rooms without a mask, is it risky?
The former PMC commissioner admits in an interview that corruption plays a vital role in things not reaching the workers
at all.
Figures of disease and death in conservancy work are shocking. The respiratory system and the skin are the worst hit. While the workers hold the authorities responsible for poor working and living conditions resulting in as many as 65 deaths in Pune and 288 in Mumbai as per 2006 figures, the workers have raised a clarion cry over the repulsive and rude attitude of the general public. There are at present 8,000 conservancy staff under the PMC Employees Union while over 5,00 people work in the unorganised sector and are hired by contractors.
Harrowing scenes shot at work, shows them in a dim light, depicting a largely neglected and abused strata of society living a living-death. Atul Pethe, the director, says: “This is a section that is always neglected by the society. They are termed as uncivilised only because they dispose the garbage generated by the civilised society.”
The film compels us to ponder as to how these people can even live, leave alone function? So what do the workers want?
From the public, acknowledgement and co-operation in not messing up the public places. From the municipal corporation, respect, health, housing, right equipment, and vocational training for their children. Why should the next generation too end up sweeping human excreta and carrying carcasses?
The documentary ends with a touching sonnet which means something like this:
“When I was born, I was recognised as human for the senses that I possessed.
Today I am recognized as human but sans the senses…
I see myself drenched in dirt and filth; stinking with muck and excreta
Don’t I have the senses?
Don’t I have a nose that smells, eyes that see, skin that feels?
Am I not a human anymore?
Then why am I being subjected to this treachery… to this inhuman life?
Look into my eyes, peek into my heart… are you not responsible for what I am?
You are the cause of my misery, you are to blame for my plight…
If you do not make the place dirty, do not throw filth around, would I have to do such a menial job?…”