Intersectionality of Caste,Gender and Occupation: A Study of Safai Karamchari Women in Maharashtra

Introduction

The problems of safai karamcharis ¹ are the least discussed and most neglected area in the academia. Some studies have been undertaken on the occupational health hazards of male safai karamcharis through the lens of caste, but the seriousness of the problems remains undisclosed (Salve, Bansod, & Kadlak, 2017) and issues of women safai karamcharis remain unattended. Even in the popular media there are very few open debates on the issue of safai karamcharis; where they have been taken up, they are more on male safai karamcharis and less on their female counterparts. This study is an attempt to fill this gap in academic discourse by highlighting the problems or difficulties woman safai karamcharis face, the coping mechanisms they use to overcome these problems and by critically analysing the government policies made for them. The primary objectives of the study were to canvas the women’s status as safai karamcharis in urban areas. This article is a result of exploratory study undertaken by the authors by conducting three different but separate data collection exercises through surveys and interviews in three most populated districts of Maharashtra—Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur from 2014 to 2016. The in-depth interviews were conducted with 115 women—Nagpur (60), Kalyan (30) and Mumbai (25)—employees working as safai karamcharis and have at least three years working experience in municipal corporation.

In Maharashtra, 59 castes are included in the Scheduled Caste (SC) list, but castes such as Mahar (mostly Neo-Buddhists), Matang, Bhambi (Chambhar) and Bhangies together constitute almost 92 percent of the total SC population. Most of the safai karamcharis working in these cities are migrants from various parts of India such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and so on. Some of those who migrated from other states to Maharashtra belong to the Bhangi, Mehatar, Olgana, Rukhi, Malakana, Halalkhor, Lalbegi, Balmiki, Korar and Zadmalli castes (Darokar, 2009). According to definition, the safai karamcharis include persons engaged as ‘sweepers’ or ‘sanitation/cleaning workers’ in municipalities and government offices. They may be direct employees of these bodies or contract employees who happen to be working for these organizations. However, safai karamcharis, per se, are not manual scavengers. The manual scavenger is a person employed for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or handling human excreta (Government of India, 2013). Their major concerns are unhygienic working and living conditions, overcrowded slum settlements, and poor access to health and education. Their problems get more aggravated by the fact that many of these employees are affected by substance abuse (alcohol, tobacco chewing, smoking, etc.) and indebtedness which leads to stress and mental health issues sometimes leading to suicidal tendency. These workers are also engaged in multiple jobs to supplement the income from sanitation work in government organizations. Majority of the workers are illiterate or less educated. They live in the outskirts of the main city and their neighbourhoods reflect ghettoization. Women safai karamcharis, who form a significant proportion of total sanitation workforce, face different problems in family, workplace and community often simultaneously.

Profile of Women Safai Karamcharis Studied

The majority of the women safai karamcharis surveyed have less than 10 years of schooling. This is not surprising as the lack of education is one of the major hurdles in their progress. Due to the lack of or less education women can not take up better jobs or be promoted to higher posts. Their educational status affects their family; mostly their children’s upbringing and future. The patriarchal and social (caste system) structure of Indian society limits the upward mobility of these women who come from castes that are lowest in the social hierarchy. As Dr Ambedkar stated, ‘It is the education which is the right weapon to cut the social slavery and it is the education which will enlighten the downtrodden masses to come up and gain social status, economic betterment and political freedom’ (Ambedkar, 1982).

The majority of women who studied in Nagpur and Mumbai municipal corporation areas were widows and were recruited through the preferential treatment (PT) ² case (popularly known as Warsa Hakka ³ ) facility after the death of the male safai karamchari and key earning member of the family. In case of the Kalyan municipal corporation, most of the women studied were currently married. In terms of social status, almost all women safai karamchari came from the SCs, followed by some from Other Backward Class (OBC) categories. Castes such as Rukhi, Mehtar, Valmiki, Mahar and Matangs were more predominant. In terms of religious composition, majority of the women safai karamchari belonged to Buddhist/Neo-Buddhist religion, followed by Hindu and Muslim. Those women who joined recently through PT case were young and pursuing graduation or had graduated. The majority of women studied were second or third generation in this occupation. As safai karamchari, women are formal employees of municipal corporations, they are entitled to get at least ₹10,000 monthly salary, and as service years increase, the salary rises. Despite having government job and regular salary, majority of these women lived in slum areas which were separate settlements or ghettoes; for instance, in Mumbai major concentration of safai kamgars are in the slums of Chembur, Govandi, Kurla, Matunga, Byculla, Andheri, Malad, Borivali, Bandra and Colaba.

The Recruitment Process of Women into Sanitation Work

There are different ways to enter into this work; first, one is Warsa Hakka (PT after the death of breadwinner) and second is direct recruitment. Most of the women employees are recruited on the basis of Warsa Hakka. Under Warsa Hakka, anyone can be recruited in the place of the person who is retired, got permanent disability or has died. Caste factor dominates strongly in the process of direct recruitment and most of the women recruited are from SC category. Some of the women join this job on contract basis. There is limited scope for women recruitment in the municipal corporation as safai karamchari. A majority of women in Mumbai municipal corporation secured their position as the safai karamcharis because of their male family members work in the municipal corporation. The direct recruitment of safai karamcharis in Mumbai municipal corporation is closed since 1989 and current recruitment is mostly based on PT, where the nominated relative by the currently working safai karamchari is replaced after his/her retirement. Male safai karamcharis are replaced by female workers when there is no male relative available or when male members in the family are under the official working age.

In the present study, we found that majority of women were the only breadwinners in their family after the retirement or death of the male safai karamchari workers. Although safai karamcharis are regular employees of municipal corporations with monthly salary, they are often caught in debt or overburdened by financial problems. Such precarious financial condition continues until retirement age and after that the female member of the family is left with no other option but to work in the municipal corporation to repay the loans. In many cases, we have observed that female karamcharis were forced by family members to enter into the sanitation work to ensure survival of the family under unfavourable financial conditions. Some of women also admitted that due to the job security and the fact that it was a government job, they agreed to work in the sanitation field.

Gendered Safai Kam

According to the 2011 Census of India, women’s work participation rate in the workforce is 26 per cent as against 52 per cent for men (Registrar General, 2016). Within the female workforce, there is caste-based hierarchical division of labour. A large number of women belonging to the SC categories find themselves at the bottom of the workforce pyramid which is often referred as ‘class four’ in government parlance. These women are mainly engaged in farming, casual work based on daily wages, class four work in government offices, sanitation and manual scavenging. In case of manual scavenging, we find more women than men. This appears to have roots in the patriarchal and caste culture as woman are considered to be impure, and therefore made responsible for clearing work whether it is inside the house or outside the house irrespective of caste, class and geographical area. Hindu religious text, Manusmriti, for instance, depicts all women as impure and applies the laws of touchability/untouchability (purity/impurity) in case of women in period (Manusmriti–79). However, women are further differentiated on the basis of caste as women from only few selected castes (for example, SCs) have been assigned (or even forced) to do unclean work. These women engaged in sanitation work suffer because of the intersection of gender and caste, and their resultant lower educational, social, economic and political status in the society. The position and work of lower-caste women have been considered an unproductive or surplus labour in the family and society.

We found that most of the women entered the sanitation work after their marriage as their parents dissuaded them from doing this before marriage. In the present study, we have observed that the age of marriage is less than 18 years. Marriages at early age result in motherhood at young age and increased household responsibilities and in some cases widowhood at very young age (Kardak, 2015; Shanthi, 2010). During data collection, most women told us that after few months of their marriage, they entered into this work area. Some others joined this job after the birth of their first or second child, and the rest after their children had grown up. A narration by one respondent (39-year-old sweeper from Kalyan) is as follows,

After two months of my marriage, I joined this work; before marriage I was not into it. I married at the age of 16 years. Nobody told me to do this work, I myself started this when I was pregnant with my elder daughter. I thought gharwala (husband) should not have (financial) problem and should not feel that he is feeding me and I am not doing anything and just sitting idle at home.

‘Muze accha nahi lagata tha (I was not feeling good), so I started the work,’ she added.

The women we studied were mostly involved in sweeping roads, markets and public places with long handle brooms and collecting the swept waste into trolleys to deposit in the community dustbins. Their nature of work though differed as per city. In Mumbai, majority of the women involved in collecting the swept waste did it with the help of two pieces of cardboard, plastic, ply or metal and disposed it in the nearby community dustbin. In Kalyan and Nagpur, women were mainly engaged in sweeping. In Nagpur, 87 per cent of the respondents collected the waste and sometimes assisted male workers. These women’s workday begins in the early morning and continues until 2 pm and they work continuously without any scheduled break. Whenever they need rest they sit for some time along the roadside. Everybody has to compulsorily wear uniform during working hours or otherwise they are penalized. At the work place, where they report and sign on and off, they do not have a changing room. Women in Nagpur municipal corporation reported that their work places do not have even basic amenities such as toilet, drinking water, sitting arrangement and first-aid box. When we enquired about the protective measures provided, women in Nagpur reported that they have not been provided with any protective gears for a long time. Similar situation is observed at Kalyan, whereas the situation of women working in Mumbai was found to be better. Women in Mumbai reported that they are provided with the basic facilities and protective measures at the reporting places.

Almost all women’s family members and relatives were associated with sanitation work which increased the acceptability of sanitation workers among family members and relatives. Since childhood, many of these women were familiar with this job and therefore found it easier to do it. However, they did admit that their job is dirty and therefore easy to get in both private and government sector. They also told us that this job is male-dominated and women have been given a secondary position and almost no say in taking decisions. The following statement by a 20-year-old woman safai karamchari from Mumbai gives us the insight into the gender dimension of recruitment,

My father died with the paralysis and permanent disability of lower back six years after he met with a road accident during working hours. He worked for 20 years in the municipal corporation as street sweeper. In that situation, my mother (35 years age) continued his work and being an elder in the family, I took over the charge of family. She was a diabetes patient; after working for 5 years, she was hit badly by a vehicle causing a fracture of her right leg. She could not be cured and passed away. Now, since the past 3 years, I am working in her place as third generation sweeper. I am planning to get married in the next few years. That time my brother will reach the age of eligibility to claim this job through PT case. I want to hand over this job to him because he is alone and will have to look after the family. After my marriage, my husband will take care of me, so for me there is no need to have this job.

Male Intervention

Caste has not only divided people on the basis of their birth but has also separated and neglected the women from the rest of the society. The institution of marriage has complicated the woman’s position in her own family. This has made her and her family members believe that she is paraya dhan (property that belongs to others) and one day she will go out of the house. Even after marriage, her in-laws house never becomes her own house and in this process she is left with a homeless feeling. Ironically, her position at the workplace is endangered by women’s exploitation or discrimination which is not a new phenomenon here. Even in the organized sector, women face humiliations; it is mostly verbal, making them to work for extra hours or making them to work where they are not comfortable.

In general, the culture that has prevailed in Indian society is in line of not hearing women’s voices; the same orientation operates at the workplace. Most of the time their requests are denied, unheard or given less importance. These women seek intervention by male members of their family such as husband, son or any male member of the family. Married women mostly seek help from their husbands and those who are widows seek help from their sons or other close relatives. Here also, they seek help from the male members to rescue themselves in critical situations. As India has a predominantly male-dominated society, most of the time it creates complicated situations for women. The latter have the mentality to be less assertive and mostly in critical situations feel helpless, less empowered and regard it safer to take help from male members. The work nature makes the employee isolated from rest of the society. Safai karamchari women are discriminated against due to the facts that they are poor, they are Dalits and they are women. They are not only discriminated against by society at large but also within their own communities, where men are dominant. In Mumbai and Nagpur, we found women facing teasing problems from their male counterparts and in Kalyan exploitation by Mukadam (supervisor).

Here we would like to mention an incidence of a hearing-impaired safai karamchari woman. A Mukadam gave her work to broom the road in a particular area. She would do the work and would sit for some time; whenever he saw her sitting, he would force her to do more work. She would not get any time for rest or for lunch; the trouble increased and she would daily cry and became mentally disturbed by his behaviour. That disturbance was reflected in her behaviour in the house. One day her son forced her to reveal her problem, she narrated everything to her younger son. He went to the Mukadam, beat him up and threaten him. Since then, the Mukadam shifted her to another area and changed her work. There is a need to change the mindset of women on how they look at themselves, and there is a need to change the approach of the male members on how they see the women.

A Sketch of Their Life Reality

Most of the women come from joint families where they have to share household responsibilities. Those who come from nuclear families have to think twice before leaving the house as to who will take care of their children. Those women who live in joint families get help from other family members, mostly from women in the family; those who live in nuclear families get the help from the girl child in the family. Most of the working women’s elder daughters, or if one does not have an elder daughter then any other daughter, work as helping hands in doing the household chores. Due to more involvement in household work, these young girls lose interest in their studies and slowly become dropouts from the school. The childhood of the safai karamcharis’ children is different from that of the other children in the society. This is due to less or no education, nature of occupation, economic deprivation and the culture the children are exposed to, which affect their personality as a whole. The primary factor that affects the children most is their caste, the stigmatized work of their parents, economic condition of the family and the lack of quality education facilities. At the second level, inadequate health care facilities and nutrition, unhygienic sanitation conditions and the third level, the child’s socio-political and cultural environment are important factors.

Although, these women are the breadwinners of their families, they do not enjoy decision-making powers. Almost all their movements and important decisions such as their sons and daughters’ marriages are taken by the in-laws or male members of the family, no matter whether they live in nuclear families or joint families. As the woman comes from low socio-economic background, because of financial constraints she goes out to supplement the family income; but even as her job is to earn money, how to spend it and where to spend it is not in her hands. At the workplace, she has to face mental and sexual harassment, abusive words and taunt from her male supervisors and male colleagues. Often, the supervisor does favouritism among female employees which create excessive burden on some other women. Most of the times, the supervisors give them work instructions by shouting and scolding them if some problem occurs while doing the work or if the work is not completed properly. Society at large looks at her as a low-caste woman, who does dirty work. Hence nobody wants to come near to her, or treat her equally.

In general, if she faces challenges at home she keeps quiet, and does not reply. At the work place, if she faces any problem she keeps quiet, or sometimes discusses the issue with her female colleagues; if the problem is major sometimes she retorts back or argues. We observed that while they work with other women, they do not mingle with other women. Only during work time they meet, do their respective tasks and then they go back to their own homes. But men, other than during their work time, go out with their friends, party together and meet in social gathering, like going for picnics, etc. One of the biggest problems that the women face is their husbands’ alcoholism and sometimes they have to lose their husbands. There is a close link with safai kam and alcoholism which has worst implications on safai karamcharis health and family, mostly on wives and children. Here is a case which reveals this problem and shows how the woman survived from her husband’s addiction and is now leading her life without her husband. Says the 40-year-old widow safai karamchari woman from Mumbai:

Since past 5 years, I am working as safai kamgar. I was 40-years old when my husband (age 47) died due to alcohol addiction. I joined as sweeper one year after his death. I am managing my household now. I have two children and both are studying in the secondary school. I took over this job after my husband’s death in 2005. When I married him, he would never touch alcohol, but over the period of years he became addicted to alcohol after being engaged in this waste collection work. Many times when he used to come home heavily drunk, I opposed him; and he used to finish it up by beating me. Due to financial scarcity, we admitted him in the government hospital, but the doctor could not save him because of lungs failure. Now I am doing work and managing the household.

Health Assailability

Safai karamchari women who are engaged in sweeping, collection of swept waste and deposition of it in the community dustbins are vulnerable to development of various severe health problem such as chronic cough, headaches, respiratory infections, skin disease, anemia, diarrhea, musculoskeletal disorders and mental disorders during the working years. At the same time, they suffer from the reproductive health problems and gynaecological issues. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders are found to be high among women probably because of the dual burden of heavy physical activities when working in the fields and doing household chores daily. About 88 per cent of the respondents at Nagpur municipal corporation, followed by 72 per cent at Mumbai, suffered from joints pain or musculoskeletal pain due to the heavy physical activities during work. Second, a high percentage of women reported mental distress due to the work burden and working schedule. The working schedule of women karamcharis are different from that of other working women in society. Safai karamchari women have to get up early in the morning around 3:00 am to 4:00 am, depending upon the distance from their house to the workplace. Their work begins at 6:30 am in the morning and before leaving for work they have to prepare food for their family. Due to this working schedule, they do not get adequate sleep and are unable to restore their physical capacity of work. This results in daily health issues such as headache, acidity, nausea, fluctuations in blood pressure, hypertension and menstrual problems.

The studies not only explored the health risks among the women but also enquired into the treatment-seeking behaviour for reported morbidities. It has been observed that safai karamchari women do not seek health treatment for their illness in the primary phase, unless it is intolerable. At the onset of any morbidity, they prefer home remedies as curative measures; when it is unmanageable, only then do they visit the pharmacist medical facility of the nearby community. Of those who seek treatment, the majority visit the public health facility nearby. The lack of literacy, unawareness and negligence towards self among safai karamchari women related to health seeking resulted in their progressive deterioration of health. As government employees, safai karamcharis are entitled to medical claims during illness, but the ground observations suggest that women were not provided with medical insurance. Whatever expenditure occurs during the treatment, women have to pay from their savings which result in financial burden and which is the out-of-pocket expenditure. Their major sources of out-of-pocket expenditure on treatment-seeking are family savings, borrowing from friends/relatives and mortgage of household assets. The situation is similar in Nagpur and Kalyan municipal corporations. But at the Mumbai municipal corporation, the women safai karamcharis reported that they were recently provided with medical insurance of around ₹250,000. karamchari, they are demanding extension of medical insurance for their family members too, with the increasing of insurance coverage to around ₹500,000.

Safai Karamchari Women and Trade Unions

When we interviewed the women and men safai karamcharis, they both disclosed that mainly men rule the trade unions. None of the women were found in high positions at the unions. Also, men never took up issues which were related to women. For instance, there are more than 50 big and small unions in the municipal corporation of Mumbai, but women’s participation in these unions are invisible. The women safai karamcharis said that the union representatives come to them asking for donations and for collecting the money for welfare of workers, but none of the unions are useful to them. The union is there to look after the issues raised by the workers; but due to the high level of illiteracy, lack of support from colleagues, fear of losing jobs, harassment, delay in processing and demands of bribe from higher position staff, they do not go against the municipal corporation. Since the trade unions are dominated by men, and as the women have their own problems and concerns to be discussed, they now feel they want their separate union where they will feel comfortable to take up their issues and challenges.

Condition of Contract Safai Karamchari Women

Although we have not thoroughly discussed the condition of contract workers in the present article, but the situation of temporary safai karamchari women are worse than that of the regular women workers. Contract safai karamchari women hardly get ₹150 to ₹200 as daily wages. There are no protective measures (hand gloves, facial masks and other facilities, etc.) made available to them. They probably work on alternative days in the areas which are not covered by the regular workers. There are critical discussions amongst workers as well as intellectuals against the privatization of safai kam, which in turn makes them insecure. Municipal corporations address contract safai karamcharis as liabilities and deny them workers’ rights.

Conclusion

We can say that safai karamchari women are directed by two kinds of authorities—one is the authority of the family, where, being a woman she is forced to do any kind of dirty work. Second is social authority such as caste and socio-cultural norms which dictate women to perform certain types of work without any question. It is found that when women take over their husbands’ jobs on the ground of PT case, they manage their finances without any pressure and use the money according to the necessity and needs of the family members, mostly children. They spend most of the money to support marriages in the family, perform rituals, customs, functions, pujas in the name of god, on health and education of the children, mostly male children. Though the safai karamchari women are vulnerable, yet there are no target- oriented policies for them. There is a need to incorporate women-centric approach to make the women more comfortable at the workplace. There is also a need to work to ensure changes in society’s approach towards safai karamchari women.

It is important to establish a strong bridge between workers and academicians who form the policies and welfare programmes for these employees so as to realize the workers’ real conditions and needs. As researchers here, we realized the importance of our intervention in revealing the real concerns of the workers. In social sciences, theories of knowledge production have to be utilized for the upliftment or betterment of the people. Just as the mobile phone, through technological innovation, has intervened in the daily lives of the people, so also the production of social science knowledge has to intervene in the daily lives of the people to reduce social inequality in the society. Women, family and community are closely interlinked, and it is the progress of women that can make the family, community and, on a larger scale, the nation, progress. Therefore, to make the nation strong, we need to recognize women as strong human beings. As Dr Ambedkar stated, ‘I measure the progress of the community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.’

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.