Once a manual scavenger, Dalit to tell her story in UK
Kounteya Sinha
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London:
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The longest distance Usha had travelled as a child was the two kilometres from Hazurigate Harijan Colony in Alwar (Rajasthan) to the houses where her mother worked as a manual scavenger.When she was seven, she followed her mother's footsteps and for the next three decades, used her bare hands to manually clean human waste from drains and homes of upper caste people.
But on Monday , Usha Chamour's remarkable journey will see her embark on a plane ride to the United Kingdom.
Forty-two-year-old Usha, who was married off at the age of 10 and spent most of her years being treated as an “untouchable“ will travel nine hours to tell Britain of her incredible story of being a Dalit and call on the eradication of the age old practice of manual scavenging in India.
Usha has been invited by the British Association of South Asian Studies at University of Portsmouth to narrate an almost unbelievable story that saw her clean sewage pipes and dirty stinking manholes and drains in India for a paltry Rs 300 a month to working as a motivator to other Dalit women, pushing them to give up manual scavenging in order to lead a “more honourable life“ making jute bags, pickles, sweets and also train them to working in beauty parlours.
Usha, who was rescued and rehabilitated by the NGO Sulabh International's Dr Bindeshwar Pathak will interact with top British academics and policy makers during a special panel discussion on `Sanitation and Women's Rights in India' on April 8 at the university .
Speaking to TOI from India, Usha said “It almost like a dream. I can't wait for this night to end.“
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com
But on Monday , Usha Chamour's remarkable journey will see her embark on a plane ride to the United Kingdom.
Forty-two-year-old Usha, who was married off at the age of 10 and spent most of her years being treated as an “untouchable“ will travel nine hours to tell Britain of her incredible story of being a Dalit and call on the eradication of the age old practice of manual scavenging in India.
Usha has been invited by the British Association of South Asian Studies at University of Portsmouth to narrate an almost unbelievable story that saw her clean sewage pipes and dirty stinking manholes and drains in India for a paltry Rs 300 a month to working as a motivator to other Dalit women, pushing them to give up manual scavenging in order to lead a “more honourable life“ making jute bags, pickles, sweets and also train them to working in beauty parlours.
Usha, who was rescued and rehabilitated by the NGO Sulabh International's Dr Bindeshwar Pathak will interact with top British academics and policy makers during a special panel discussion on `Sanitation and Women's Rights in India' on April 8 at the university .
Speaking to TOI from India, Usha said “It almost like a dream. I can't wait for this night to end.“
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com
