Usha's journey to Padmashree... Vinit Vartak ©
The balance between good and bad in society is fundamentally wrong. White-collar people fleeing from their luxury cars, throwing glass, garbage from plastic bags, leftover food and even used sanitary napkins like whispers on the side of the road. After that they come home and talk about the importance of cleanliness on social media. Society considers such people as good and dignified. So the people who pick up this garbage and keep it clean are treated as a scapegoat by the society. Society stay away from them, They throw them outside society. They think they are the dirt in the society. But people in the white supremacist community don't say a word about what they do in society. This is the story of such a woman who was harassed, harassed and despised by the society. But putting all this aside, she continued her work of cleanliness and the same work was honored by the Government of India in 2020 with the Padma Shri award.
Open defecation has been a tradition in India for a long time. Even in a city like Mumbai, if you had traveled in the morning local train before 2014, you would have seen the scene hundreds of times. The doctrine that we want to clean our dirt was never rooted. If this was the case in a city like Mumbai then we can imagine what would happen in a city like Alwar in Rajasthan. Usha Chaumar was working as a cleaner in the same city. Usha, who got married at the age of 10 and started her married life at the age of 14, used to go to people's homes in 2003 to work as a cleaner. She had to do everything from cleaning the 10 houses to removing the garbage and disposing of it. People used to throw food left over from the house, even used sanitary pads, condoms and whatever. To get close to her was ugliness. These people were of the opinion that Usha was a filth in the society. She was not acceptable in the society. She was not allowed to enter in there houses. She is not even allowed to enter the shop to bring groceries. Things like entry into temples are far away.
Usha was also a human. The society was not thinking about how much she was suffering from all this. According to Usha, when she used to came home, she saw dal, but at the same time shiver went through her head every time. Because the smell of rotten food, garbage, human excrement, the atmosphere she was working was so different that there was no desire to eat anything. Her hopes for a better future were dashed. But in 2003, an unexpected turn came in her life. She met Dr. Bhindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International. He discouraged Usha and her colleagues from doing this work and gave them the opportunity to work with Sulabh Sanstha. Under his guidance, Usha started working in the organization 'Nai Disha'. She started a movement to inculcate the importance of cleanliness in the society and to discourage people from engaging in such degrading activities.
From 2014 to date, more than 9.6 crore toilets have been built in every corner of India. On the one hand, the Prime Minister of the country built a toilet, on the other hand, Usha's movement inspired many people to know the importance of cleanliness. As a citizen and part of society, we have a responsibility to clean our dirt, our excrement, and to dispose of our waste properly. The Government of India honored Usha with the prestigious Padma Shri in the year 2020, taking note of her hard work, especially in rural areas. It is the fruit of Usha's perseverance that the same white supremacist society that once threw her in the outside and kept a distance from her is now waiting for her visit. There is a big part of Doctor. Pathak and Sulabh in her transformation. Today, Usha is the President of Sulabh's Social Service Organization. With the same initiative and zest she continues unabated even today.
The journey of Usha to Padma Shri, is very inspiring for everyone. But it is a mirror of the double standards that society receives. Sweepers are not garbage pickers, they are messengers of true cleanliness. It is very important for this idea to take root somewhere in the society today. Special congratulations from the Government of India for honoring such people with Padma Shri. My strong salute to the work of Usha Chaumar. My best wishes for her next journey.
Jai Hind !!!
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