After Swachh Bharat: ‘One of the Biggest Crises in 2021 India’ ‘80% of sanitation workers do not even reach the age of retirement’
Pragya Akhilesh is secretary of the Bhim Safai Karamchari Trade Union and national convener of the Rehabilitation Research Initiative. In this interview she discusses the health and sanitation hazard of toilets without water, and poorly constructed dry latrines contaminating the water supply, which she calls ‘one of the biggest crises’ in contemporary India.
Is it true that toilets have become hotbeds of disease spread in the pandemic?
The lockdown has had its own problems with decreasing toilet usage. In 2020 there was a massive decline in actual toilet usage in rural India. This is mainly because toilets are in poor shape, the roofs are falling, doors are breaking or soggy and there is an acute shortage of water supply. The outcome of this is that toilets have become hotbeds for disease spread.
They Call Me Toilet Woman to Limit My Work to a Critique of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
An interview with Pragya Akhilesh, a pioneer in efforts of rehabilitate men and women pushed into manual scavenging. Pragya Akhilesh. Photo: Lok Theatre/Facebook
Women24/Feb/2021
Pragya Akhilesh is called the ‘toilet woman of Delhi’. She is a trade unionist, activist and theatre director. She is also the national secretary of the Bhim Safai Karmachari Trade Union and the convener of Rehabilitation Research Initiative.
She has contributed numerous passages and articles to the
Indian Express, Hindustan Times, DownToEarth and Dalit Camera on the governmentâs failure to recognise the labour movement of sanitation workers and the failure to eradicate and rehabilitate manual scavengers. From 2010, her efforts with folk repertory groups like Bhim Dal, Ambedkar Manch and Lok Theatre in Delhi have led to campaigns such as
Read more about India Coronavirus Dispatch: Monsoons could cause a spurt in cases on Business Standard. Over 11,000 fresh cases reported, fewer takers for second dose, manual scavengers not a priority for shots-news relevant to India s fight against Covid-19