Description

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.