A marriage at 16 ended her schooling. By 18 she was carrying human excreta, collected from dry toilets; detesting it each day, yet doing it, as women in her community had done for generations. Fortunately, those days are behind her now.
Kiran is one of the 250 women from a Dalit community from Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh who were forced to live by clearing latrines of caste Hindu households and carrying human excreta in cane baskets for eventual dumping. In return they received some food and Rs 10 a month from each household. This activity was exclusively done by married women from the community.
But today, their lives are changing through a community movement called Garima or dignity, launched five years back with support from ActionAid.
Read more: Parvinder Singh, Merinews, 06 Oct 2008
See also: ‘We want dignity,’ demand women leaders from the manual scavenging community in the capital today, ActionAid India, 27 Aug 2008 and India – Women manual scavengers demand dignity of labour
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