Toilet College trains manual scavengers for a better life

Despite the ban on manual scavenging, it is prevalent in the country in various parts and many scanvemgers die each year during the cleaning process due to non-use of protection methods.

The Manual Scavengers Act 2013 prohibited all forms of manual scavenging. It also ensures the rehabilitation of such workers.

However, the rules have proven to be unproductive in reality.

Manual scavenging is done due to poverty. The scavengers who do not have other means of the source are doing this work out of their necessity.

They do not have money to buy safety equipment as prescribed by the law.

As per some advocates, if the government provides such equipment at subsidized rates or rental programs where they can get them on rent, it would be helpful.

Reckitt Benckiser established ‘World Toilet College’ in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand in 2016.

It is popular as India’s first toilet college.

The objective of this college is to be aligned to Swacch Bharat Mission. It also wants to empower the lives of manual scavengers and improve their professional lives.

The Toilet College trains manual scavengers in sanitation methods and modern techniques associated with cleaning and sanitation. Their vision is to train them free of cost.

Their training and support started with women. They trained 5,000 female masons who were building toilets.

They also support positive transformation in manual scavengers.

Their training helped them get sustainable employment opportunities in nearly 90 organizations including both the public and private sector.

The main criteria to get admission into the college is that the applicant should not have any communicable disease and true willingness of the applicant to undergo the training.

The health screening and medicals tests are done with a bench of doctors on board to check the first criterion.

The second criterion is decided by way of psychometric tests to decide the aptitude and willingness of the candidate.

Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affair and partnerships, Reckitt Benckiser says that 90% of applicants come with health disorders like tuberculosis and chest related issues.

Hence, such candidates are provided with necessary treatment first by the in-house doctors of the college.

If needed, these patients are referred to government institutions. The college provides a free health check-up facility for children of the trainees who are studying there.

Image Credit: toilet by bloomsberries is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabliaux/162725190/