A Day In The Life OF Sunil Bidnar

The fundamental and core feature of India's social structure is its caste system. Even after 78 years of India's independence, caste remains the symbol and essence of Indian society. The Bhangi caste lies in the bottommost tier of the the Hindu caste hierarchy. It is considered to be a highly polluted caste since its members often engage in sweeping and cleaning. They are known by various names in different states, for instance in Punjab they are known as Chuhra; while in U.P Bihar and Rajasthan, they are known as Bhangi, Mehtar, Jharmali, Halalkhor, Raut, Hela, Dom, Domar, Basor and so on. The places where they live are called Mohalla/Basti(ghetto) or “Bhangio-ki-bastee”. There is a saying in Marwari (a regional language of Rajasthan) “Jathi jao vathi Bhangi” meaning “Wherever you go you will see Bhangi”.

Sunil Bidnar is a 25-year-old sweeper from Gorai, Borivali west. Sunil was originally from ‘Jind’, a small village from Panipat in Haryana. When he came to Mumbai he stayed in Andheri and later shifted to Gorai. Sunil’s village lacks employment opportunities and suffers from a lack of development, "That is why many people come to Mumbai to find work," he says.

Sunil is the youngest one of his four brothers; all of them do the same work. The work he does is not easy to do because he has to put his hands in a dustbin, the smell creates discomfort, and carrying the heavy dustbin from one place to another is a difficult task. After undertaking such work he earns what can only be described as a meagre amount: around Rs 2500-3500 per cooperative housing society.

"I see that many people in the city choose to beg,: he says. "That was never a course open to me. My brothers and I choose to work. I work hard and the money I earn is my money."

Sunil is interested in real estate and undertakes part-time work in a builder's office because he believes that sweeping doesn’t help him earn much. In his native place, many people who don’t do this kind of work usually work in farming and house chores.

Earlier Sunil worked at a medical shop however, since the salary was not enough he had to leave that job. Later he got the opportunity to work in a building developer’s office where the starting salary was around 12000 rupees a month after which got a hike of 16000 only due to his work ethic.

Sunil’s work shift as a sweeper typically starts at 6.00am and ends at 10.00am. At 10.30 am, he goes to an office where he works as an office boy, which is another eight hour shift.“Gareeb kitna bhi kamale gareeb gareeb hi rehega”(However hard a poor man works for his life still he’ll be poor only.) He has two younger brothers working as sweepers with him, while the eldest has graduated and works as an LIC agent while undertaking a part-time sweeping job. He also invests in the share market. Sunil along with his brother work as a sweeper in 5 housing societies on contract. Sunil mentions that getting this work is also quite a challenge, as to get a sweeping contract, one has to pay a whopping 1 to 1.5 lakh rupees as a bribe. Many people who haven't been able to arrange for such funds have gone back to their villages.

Sunil is the third generation in his family who has been doing this work and it has been carried on. It is not the job that is problematic but the most important is respect which he seeks from people, what he says in the end.