![]() ![]() What has angered the Supreme Court is the continuing denial of the States. According to census estimates Gujarat has 4,000 plus toilets cleaned by animals and half the number by humans – vastly underestimated figures according to local NGOs working with the issue. But Bengal coming in second was a surprise, with over 70,000 toilets serviced by animals and 1.3 lakhs cleaned by humans. The first list of poor performers has some obvious ones with UP topping the list – 3.16 lakh toilets (42% of the national figure) serviced by manual scavengers and over 80,000 by animals. ![]() SKA data shows that of the 24.6 crore families in the country, close to 10% throw sewage untreated directly into the environment, 50% of which is dealt with by equal numbers of manual scavengers and animals! This then is obviously a common practice, not only confined to old Goan families. SKA found that despite claims to the contrary, most States in India still use manual scavengers and animals to clean toilets! Yes, I knew of the inhuman practice of continuing manual scavenging, but that there exists data on how many animals are deployed to clean toilets astonished me. Why this comes to mind is because of a petition filed in the Supreme Court of India by the Safai Karmachari Andolan with data culled from the latest census, and heard by the Supreme Court with anger and disbelief. But this new use to which they were put bemused and befuddled me. Now I have always known that human beings give pigs a bad name – calling a messy or dirty individual a messy pig, for instance, and that pigs on the contrary were very clean animals. (Recycling at its best – the pigs eat human excreta and the humans eat the same pigs). And that these pigs were actually kept to grace the tables and palates of the Goans. That the pig pens were built to ensure that they got human waste directly and could dispose of it immediately, more or less as it fell. That is when I first discovered a curious thing about pigs - that they were officially used in these old houses to eat human excreta in the absence of sewage systems. We also went to some old mansions where the famous families of Goa had resided in splendour for generations. A kind and knowledgeable friend took me on an extended tour of sites, mostly Portuguese and mostly churches. The first time I went to Goa, many many years ago, I wanted a tour of ‘heritage’ Goa. ![]()
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