Mainstream WeeklyMahatma Gandhi’s spectacles are being used as an emblem for the Government of India’s sanitation campaign Swachha Bharat Abhiyan. Even though the Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, abhors Gandhi’s ideology, yet Narendra Modi has decided to use Gandhi as a symbol for his drive for cleanliness. First, he knows that Gandhi is the only truly mass leader that India has produced in recent times who holds a national as well as international appeal. Second, he would probably not want people to remember Gandhi for his other ideas like truth, non-violence, Swadeshi or communal harmony because they are antithetical to his and his organisation’s thinking. It would be much more convenient for his brand of politics if future generations of Indians were to associate Gandhi only with his sanitation programme and none of his other ideals.
For Gandhi, sanitation was not just picking up a broom and cleaning for photo opportunity, which is what the SBA has been reduced to. When a new person would come to Gandhi’s ashram with a desire to work with him, the first thing s(he) would be required to do was to clean a toilet. This was Gandhi’s way of testing people’s resolve and commitment to social or public cause. Gandhi would identify with the community of sanitation workers and even said that in the future birth he would like to be born in that community.
The people who are engaged in cleaning of human excreta are called manual scavengers. This practice is a blot on the name of humanity. According to the Socio-Economic Caste Census 1,80,657 households earn their livelihood through