'My life cleaning Delhi's sewers'

[Omar1984]

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'My life cleaning Delhi's sewers'
India may be spending billions on its high tech space programme but its spending on sewers is decidedly low tech and deadly, reports the BBC's Rupa Jha.


I live smelling death, but it is fine.
Rewa Ram, sewer worker

I will never forget the sight of that thin short man, wearing nothing but cotton underpants, strapped into a harness arrangement, disappearing down into a dark manhole beneath the streets of my home city.

The diameter of the hole was so small that he bruised himself while slipping down.

Inside was a dark well, full of sewage, with giant cockroaches sticking to the wall.

Before he climbed in I asked him his name. I was really surprised when he answered flamboyantly, "Rewa Ram - Son of Khanjan."

I thought: "He must be educated, seems to speak some English." But when I asked him, he said: "No. I'm a complete illiterate."

When I looked down that hole into the drains of Delhi, the smell was overwhelming. Down below, he was coughing, trying hard to keep breathing.

He was struggling to clear a blockage with his bare hands.

Dizzying smell

All of a sudden, a pipe protruding into the drain above his head started spewing out water and human faeces that poured over his body.


I began to feel dizzy just looking down into this mess.

My nostrils were filled with that obnoxious smell, a bit like of rotten eggs. I wanted to vomit. I felt weak and wanted to run away from the smell.

I was born and brought up in India and for the past 15 years I have lived in Delhi, the capital city of one of the world's most rapidly growing economies. I am a member of the growing, upwardly mobile middle class.

I suppose I represent the "roaring Tiger" India, but I am regularly shocked and surprised when I see the struggle for dignity that so many face here.

Literally beneath the glitter of the big city lies a vast network of these dark drains, where so many Rewa Rams are struggling with toxic gases and human waste. They suffer disease and discrimination in return for cleaning the city's sewage system.

Deadly job

Rewa Ram is just one of thousands of sanitation workers in India who work hard to keep the cities, towns and villages clean.

Most of them come from the community of lower caste Dalits as they are known, or untouchables.

Health experts working in the field told me most of these workers would die before their retirement because of the poor health and safety conditions they work in. Their life expectancy is thought to be around 10 years less than the national average.


India's economy is growing rapidly, but not all are feeling the benefits

Dr Ashish Mittal, an occupational health consultant, did a survey of the working conditions of sewage workers.

He told me most of the workers suffer from chronic diseases, respiratory problems, skin disorders and allergies. He said they are constantly troubled by headaches and eye infections. I am not surprised.

Rewa Ram was pulled out when he started feeling dizzy from the toxic fumes in the manhole.

They were thick with a mixture of methane and hydrogen sulphide, both considered potentially fatal by the health experts.

He needed water to clean himself, just a splash on his face could have made him feel better.

His colleagues started banging on doors of the rich neighbourhood where he was working. Nobody opened their gate.

Ancient sewers

Human rights activists and trade unionists I have talked to ask a simple question. If the government of India can spend billions on its space programme, if Delhi can reach all its targets for the beautification of the city in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, including an underground train system, then why can't the sewage system be modernised?

Why does it still rely on sending practically naked men down below the streets to clear the drains with their bare hands, being exposed to noxious gases which could take them to a premature grave?


Activists ask why India spends so much on space and so little on sewers

I put these questions to the authorities.

The reply? "We are trying our best."

It did not really feel good enough after what I had seen.

The law courts have passed several orders banning human beings from going into the sewage system unless it is an emergency.

In Delhi it looks as if every day is an emergency in the sewers.

Smell of death

I asked Rewa Ram, still breathless and covered with the sewage from the drain: "How do you feel about having to do this work?"

With folded arms, he replied: "I am not educated, I come from a very poor family of untouchables. What else can I expect?

"At least I have a government job and I am able to feed my children. I get into this hell everyday but then this is my job.

"I live smelling death, but it is fine."

But is it fine? Why should he expect so little just because he comes from a lower caste and is not educated?

How can our so-called civil society be so indifferent to the millions like him? I, for one, am left feeling guilty.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 7 February, 2009 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

Rupa Jha's report on India's sewage cleaners can be heard on the One Planet programme on BBC World Service on Thursday 12 February 2009 to Saturday 14 February. After broadcast you can download the podcast from here.


BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | 'My life cleaning Delhi's sewers'

[A.Rahman]

Welcome to Shining India

[Xeric]

The sewerage system is also bad in Pakistan, but it is worst in india!
Cant believe it what they make these 'poor' people do!!!

Atleast we don'y 'kill' someone while he clean our siht!

[fateh71]

The sewerage system is also bad in Pakistan, but it is worst in india!
Cant believe it what they make these 'poor' people do!!!

Atleast we don'y 'kill' someone while he clean our siht!

WHAT? Somebody killed Rewa Ram?

[Xeric]

WHAT? Somebody killed Rewa Ram?

If you open your eyes and your mind also and the probably the windows too so that you can breath some fresh air instead of the stink, you might be able to see that there is an inverted comma around THAT word!!

[Jihad]

WHAT?!?! They don't show these footages in the "Incredible India" commercials here on TV!
It must be fake, I don't believe it, this can't be happening inside India.

[jeypore]

WHAT?!?! They don't show these footages in the "Incredible India" commercials here on TV!
It must be fake, I don't believe it, this can't be happening inside India.

Stop making jokes like it does not happen in Pakistan also. From reading this thread it is very clear that Pakistan must have robots that do these kind of jobs, very advance, I must say. Because here in the states cleaning the sewers still requires some human labor.

[kenchabhai]

MCD and DJB is full of corrupt pricks....

[Jihad]

Stop making jokes like it does not happen in Pakistan also. From reading this thread it is very clear that Pakistan must have robots that do these kind of jobs, very advance, I must say. Because here in the states cleaning the sewers still requires some human labor.

Dear jeypore, with all due respect, I admit and I will not deny that the situation in Pakistan is no better then it is in India, I do not hide the reality like some tend to do.

[kenchabhai]

Dear jeypore, with all due respect, I admit and I will not deny that the situation in Pakistan is no better then it is in India, I do not hide the reality like some tend to do.

I don't think it is possible for Indians to hide the situation. Everywhere millions o people visit India, there is the internet, there are news reports. I would say India is there for all to see and judge.
The only difference in opinion is because of one's own biases.

[Jihad]

I don't think it is possible for Indians to hide the situation. Everywhere millions o people visit India, there is the internet, there are news reports. I would say India is there for all to see and judge.
The only difference in opinion is because of one's own biases.

It is indeed not possible to hide it, even though it is being tried.
It's just a reminder for some Indians who life in a dreamworld.
I'm sure India will shine to its full extent and potential in the future, but right now, there's alot of work that needs to be done, do you agree?

[kenchabhai]

It is indeed not possible to hide it, even though it is being tried.It's just a reminder for some Indians who life in a dreamworld.

Most Indian members on this board imo are educated, from various religious, ethnolinguist communities and urban and middle class and up. Their views will be divergent from both extremes aka the super rich India or the super poor India. Middle Class in India are a relatively new phenomena in Independent Indian history, they are those who studied, struggled and despite the system progressed.

The naked sadhus, the floating corpses, defecating in the open, hunger deaths etc. are quite dreamworld/nightmare like for me. Not that it does not happen, but the scale of it is grossly over-estimated.


More often than not Pakistanis on this board push Indians. I mean most of them have not lived in India, do not know its realities but pass judgements. And when an Indian counters, they call it dream world like. You may think all Hindus are like Modi or Thackrey or that all Sikhs are like Bhindranwale or all Muslims are like Kalam but is it the reality ?

Similar case with Pakistan, many Indians will find it shocking that there are mercedes in Pakistan, schools like Aitchison, girls wear jeans and smoke cigarettes, young guys drink and party, etc.

I'm sure India will shine to its full extent and potential in the future, but right now, there's alot of work that needs to be done, do you agree?

From being a broke nation in 1990s to producing 4 of the top 10 richest men in 2000s. The people have done a lot more than was expected of them.

Those who didn't make it, have to struggle or perish, "koi ghar baithay ko toh nahi khilayega". If an illiterate person brings up his children as illiterates bums, you can't expect me or the govt to help them ?

[Captain03]

bad news
but nothing something we should pick india about
alot of developing countries face these same problems
besides india has done much more evil for us to care about this little thing

[fateh71]

If you open your eyes and your mind also and the probably the windows too so that you can breath some fresh air instead of the stink, you might be able to see that there is an inverted comma around THAT word!!

Ok Master, i did all of that. now tell me what does the inverted comma mean?

and it better be good.

[ramonfernandez]

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This is sad. Most of the 3rd world countries are like this. Hard labor jobs wherein government doesn't look into much just like jobs where people look for food or something they can sell in garbage.

Although sewer cleaning is a messy job, there should still be sanitary precautions. If the people themselves can't check this, the government should at least check and help them.




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Charlotte Sewer Cleaning