There Is Nothing That Wouldn’t Change

 

'There Is Nothing That Wouldn’t Change' is the title of a book of conversations between Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson and noted writer Perumal Murugan. For those unfamiliar with Wilson’s work, he is an activist who has devoted his life to fighting for the rights of sanitation workers, particularly those forced to clean dry latrines and human waste by hand.

Many among the urban Gen Z and Alpha generations may not know how dry latrines work. You defecate and leave the waste where it is. Sanitation workers then come and remove the raw human waste in buckets, often using nothing more than a tin blade as their tool. When wheelbarrows or pickup vans are unavailable, they carry these buckets on their heads. These workers come from the lowest rungs of India’s caste system and are often forced to inherit this inhuman occupation, receiving only meagre benefits from municipalities and corporations.

Born in Andhra Pradesh to a couple who worked as sanitation workers, Wilson experienced the inhumanity and oppression associated with this work firsthand. As a teenager, he began to feel that he had to work towards eradicating this uncivilised practice.

Human waste in dry latrines, however, is only part of the problem. In cities, drains and sewers become clogged, and sanitation workers are made to enter poisonous, gas-filled pits without adequate life-protecting equipment to unclog them. Many have died in the process, suffocating in these confined spaces.

Wilson has spent decades working for the welfare of sanitation workers and for the complete eradication of manual scavenging. He believes technology can replace human involvement in this sector and that former sanitation workers can be rehabilitated through education and skill development. Safai Karmachari Andolan (Sanitation Workers Movement) emerged from this activism. Today, Wilson travels across India and abroad, speaking about the urgent need for change.

Every time Wilson speaks about the plight of sanitation workers, he returns to the question of the Indian caste system. In his conversation with Murugan, he traces how this practice evolved into a legitimised form of caste-based labour, particularly during the post-Mughal and colonial periods.

Today, our Prime Minister expresses empathy towards sanitation workers but does little to dismantle the system that keeps them trapped in this work. Wilson argues that the Prime Minister sees business opportunities where there should be a focus on human dignity, stripping the issue of its human content. In large states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the practice continues. Many workers are leaving the occupation, but those caught within the system find it extremely difficult to escape.

Wilson calls for the complete eradication of this vile system, which now operates largely through contractors, allowing governments to shirk their responsibilities—especially when deaths and accidents occur during sanitation operations. It is an appalling reality that, even as India approaches eight decades of Independence, such an inhuman system remains embedded in our society.

This book is, fundamentally, about justice for sanitation workers. Yet the very production and presentation of the book raises another question of injustice—this time towards Bezwada Wilson himself.

Penguin presents the book primarily as a work by Perumal Murugan, who has a considerably larger readership and fan following than Wilson. In reality, Murugan’s role in the book is minimal: he asks questions and facilitates Wilson’s reflections. The book, therefore, could more appropriately have been presented as Bezwada Wilson in Conversation with Perumal Murugan.

Penguin, like the government Wilson criticises, appears to see the business opportunity before it sees the human being. And, in an increasingly authoritarian environment, the publishing industry too cannot afford to forget its responsibility towards those whose voices it claims to amplify.

JohnyML