Publisher's Synopsis
The book elaborates the safaikam1, safaikarmachari2, and its relation to caste, their
life, and the condition of work. The study brings out how the obligation to do
safaikam by lower castes is a result of 'punishment' and 'duty assigned' to particular
castes of people. The study critically discusses the shift of arguments about the work
of safaikamchari was a result of punishment, and assigned duty on particular castes
has been called an 'occupation' since the time of the British period. The scavenging
occupation has been graded as one of the lowest and most degraded and
dehumanizing occupations. This precisely the present thesis is attempting to explore
the nature, extent, and impacts of the parents engaged in safaikam on the higher
education of their children. With this background, the present thesis endeavors to
explore the genesis, nature, and extent of impact about the origin and continuation of
Safaikam, The study examines the central idea of this thesis about how sanitation
work of parents affects the children who are pursuing higher education. The emphasis
of the study is derived from the hypothesis that children's education can enable the
liberation of safaikamcharis and their next generation, at the same time, to protect and
prevent them from such a deteriorated value attached occupation.
The study reviews various initiatives of Government policies and schemes for the betterment of
safaikarmacharis' life and their conditions of work. Education has a capacity to
transform the children of safaikamcharis, and to restore their lost dignity and to
prevent them from such exploitative nature of the occupation. The caste-based
scavenging occupation has been, therefore, critically examined through the role of
education among their children. Simultaneously, some policy gaps have been
explored to recommend and improve the educational status of the children of
safaikarmacharis.
The theoretical perspective of the study is informed by the intellectual tradition of
Dr. Ambedkar's approach to liberate the safaikamcharis from this age-old
occupation unless the focus is on higher education. One of the leading education
thinkers, Jyotiba Phule, has also prescribed education as an instrumental tool to come out from this stigmatized occupation. On a similar line, the researcher has argued that higher education can be one of the measures to liberate safaikarmacharis from their generation's continued occupation and offered empirical insights drawn from deeply intensive fieldwork.
Unless higher education, they cannot come out from this generation old occupation and achieve a higher
post and make improvement in their lives. Some sanitation workers currently
engaged in this occupation perceive their occupation to be given by normative and
divine caste system. They do not find it problematic and largely appear to be a
receiver, as per the philosophy and approach of Gandhi. The researcher
deconstructs this philosophy and deploys Dr. Ambedkar's approach to education
that invariably unravels the idea of purity pollution associated with this profession.
