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Cleaners of city live in unclean world

Over 60,000 Dalits cram into 8 colonies, 19 slums; they hardly have any access to sanitary, water facilities

Amena Khatun
They clean our sewerage tanks, sweep our streets and ensure that we live in a dean city, and we make them live under the most inhuman circumstances.
The Dalit community of the country don't have access to adequate sanitary and water facilities and housing for them is also limited.
The Dalits are mostly sweepers by profession and have been living in almost inhuman conditions for generations now, utterly neglected by the authorities and common people alike.
There are no official figures about the size of the Dalit community in the country. The Bangladesh Dalit Human Rights (BDHR) organisation daim that there are 55 - 60 lakh members of this community spread out all over the country.
In the capital city there is some 60,000 people living in eight colonies set up by Dhaka City Corporation, and 19 slum-colonies that have mushroomed on its own.
The DCC's colony in Wari is two five-storey
buildings with 600 rooms, housing 10,000 members of the Telugu and Kanpuri community. Here, small rooms are allocated to each family. The space is inadequate and there is always a severe crisis of drinking water and sanitation.
Apart from the two DCC buildings, the area now also houses dozens of smaller singlestorey houses built over the years as the need for space grew.
The colony has no regular water supply. Wasa supplies water, though irregularly, which is stored in a large well at the centre of the colony. This water, raised with buckets by inhabitants for their use is nowhere sufficient for their needs.
The large room housing this well also serves as a public bathhouse.
There are gas connections in the colony building - -except for the top floors - - and also in the new houses that have been built. However, the supply is not regular.
Babul Chandra Das, a member of the Kanpuri community and a DCC sweeper, said, "I have been living in this tiny nine foot by 11 foot room for 23 years now. It now houses four generations of family members -- grandparents, parents, two sons and their wives and three grandchildren.
Chanda Rani, from the Telegu community, said those are living in the building have toilets on their floors. Those living in the newer singlestorey houses share 12 toilets but there are no bathrooms. This leaves little room for privacy of the women living here.
In addition, around 60 members of the Telegu community have been livingon the top floor of the nearby Dayaganj City Corporation Market adjacent to the colony.
Losmi Rani, who lives here, said there are no toilets or bathrooms on the floors cramped with tiny rooms. Inhabitants here use the three market toilets, paying Tk 2 for every use. For baths, they queue at the communal bath at the adjacent Kanpuri communitycolony.
Around 35 families belonging to the Telegu community currently share 22 rooms at the
Gabtali embankment There is a single tubewell here for drinking water but it mostly pumps out dirty water, says Bithika Rani Das, who lives here.
There are only six toilets here but no bathrooms.
"We lived at the Mohammadpur Town Hall field for 50 years but in 2007 DCCevicted us," Bithika said.
"We were sent to the Gabtali embankment but the land provided to us is not only inadequate but also submerges under water during the monsoons. The DCC is aware of the situation but has done nothing to help us," she said.
Shyamal Kumar Das, a retired DCC sweeper, said. "We alive in constant fear of being evicted, we have not seen any permanent housing in this city for us."
"People don't rent us any place to live, because we are sweepers and sewerage cleaners, so we have no option but to stay in places allotted by the DCC or other authorities. And they give us the worst of housingfacilities."
Mahalaxmi Das, assistant secretary BDHR, lives at the
Gabtali embankment in a tiny room with three generations of family members.
She said, "We clean the dirt of this city so that city dwellers live in comfort. We help the government keep this country’ clean. But people treat us like untouchables."
"The only time people remember us is during elections because they need our votes to win. They promise us so many things, which they forget the instant they win," Mahalaxmi said.
The prevailing social discrimination against them prevents them from integrating with the society.
"House owners refuse to rent rooms to Dalits if they get to know our identity," David Raju, another inhabitant, said.
"Many Dalits used to live in slums but successive governments have evicted them. However they never took any initiatives to rehabilitate the evicted people," said N Ramu living at Pangu Telegu Sweeper Colony in the city.
He said the Public Works Department (PWD) authority has evicted the Dalits three times -- first from the Shahid Suhrawardy Hospital area,
then from near the IDB Bhaban at Agargaon and then from the PWD government quarters area in Agargaon. Right now they have been pushed to the PWD field near the Asian Development Bank at Agargaon.
"There are around 150 families living in shanties in this slum-colony. We have made seven bamboo makeshift toilets for ourselves. But we have no bathrooms," N Ramu said, adding they use an illegal water line from a Wasa supply mainline but have no gas supply here.
Ratna Rani Das, assistant coordinator of Dalit Nari Forum living at Pangu Telegu Community in the city said though the government makes arrangement for the accommodation for its officials and other professionals, it has no allocation for the Dalits.
The sweepers amidst them are also the lowest paid employees though their job is so essential for the city, Ratna pointedout.
The starting salary for sweepers is only Tk 2,200 and none of the sweepers are ever absorbed as permanent employees of DCC. Ratna
herself has beene sweeper with DCC for 28 years but still works as a master roll.
The Dalits were brought to this country during 1835 -1850 by the then British government from different provinces of India to clear jungles and clean roads here as there was a huge shortage of cleaners, according to BDHR. Since then they have been moved from one place to another, but never seen any permanent abode. They are socially looked down on and were never allowed to integrate with the rest of the society.
According to Dhaka City Corporation, there are 9 building in eight colonies for them. Ofthese-fiveareinGonoktuli, two 2 in Wari and two in Nazirabazar. There are also numerous slum colonies that have grown up beside these colonies. Around 15,000 Dalit families numbering around 60,000 people live in them.
Sources said construction has begun on five buildings for the Dalit community two in Wari, two in Dhalpur and one in Mirpur ward-7. Community leaders say that this is nowhere near the need.