Was working on my term paper on Dalit Studies a couple of hours ago when I heard didis sweeping broom cleaning the common spaces of our ghetto at Vijay Nagar Double Storey- she mops the countless stinking dollops of of dog and cow shit.abundant on the stairs and the gateway, cleanses with phenyle the shared toilet kept filthy and damp by a group of redundant bachelors, and cleans the entire building some days a week to give it a neater shape. Today, I interrupted her and asked about her origin. She hails from a community of untouchables in Rajasthan and now puts up at a slum at Shakurpur with her husband and children. When I asked her about the treatment she gets from the families she serves, she informed how sweepers and bai-s are still ostracized in the urban (read rich, developed and at times, educated) spaces of New Delhi, how theyre seen as nothing more than dirt (cleaners), how her clients think that paying and handsomely tipping her solves most of (t)he(i)r problems. I asked after her children and she told me that theyre sent to a public school- she saves every nickel and penny for their education. Its astounding to observe how after almost 70 years of independence our domestic helps are still supplied by the lower castes- how Mulk Rajs preposition that machines will sort things out is still a myth- how we privileged assholes busy in securing for ourselves a respectable position in the society still do not clean our own toilets and expect someone needier to do it for money. I paid her 50 bucks extra this month to buy stationary for her children and offered her to approach me for any kind of help, not necessarily monetary, and realized that that was nothing more than mere ugly tokenism. But she needs a living and sacking her (and doing her work ourselves) would be another form of oppression. Our system forces us to conform to these tactics of a welfare economy- I know she wouldnt respond if I ask her to join a revolution- for her living and family is certainly more than important than the hollow calls of hallabol- I have no freaking idea about how these sectors can be uplifted... But now I realize Ive written enough, Ive to get back to my term paper to fetch more marks and hence the post ends here with me, confused, guilty, and lost in thoughts... Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 12:44:07 +0000
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