The Last Man

I belong to the one of the De-notified tribe called Chharas in the western part of the India. Chharas are known as "Born Criminals" due to colonial stigma because of "Criminals Tribe Act of 1871". Even after 149 years of creating this act by the British and 70 years to repeal this unconstitutional act by independent India, we are still facing “Born Criminal” Stigma by the system and society. As a DNT, I also face socio-political oppression, police atrocities and social exclusion is day to affairs. My community is victim of history and such victimization is continuing. To counter with this historical stigma I used Theatre Art to express our anguish, aspirations and problems. Since 20 years I have been active in community theatre production, trained more then 300 youth in Theatre and now they are doing socio-political issues of oppressed communities in the country. I emerged as DNT activist and in the social movements I have seen many oppressed people who are harassed by the society and system and one of the communities is “Valimiki” community who, traditionally, are imposed to do different kind of manual scavenging. No human can work such foul-smell areas, forcing to the particular community to do such jobs is sheer violation of human rights, it's a blot on the democratic constitution that guarantees DIGNITY of its citizens.

What makes India different from rest the world is not only its great culture and emergence as one of the strong economies, but also the paradoxes, which are found in the India society and its progress. While India can take pride in sending its Mission to Mars at the per kilometer cost of a cup of tea, she has not been able to stop her citizens entering into the manhole full of human excreta from cleaning.

This paradox doesn’t only show the failure of using available technology to eradicate the subhuman practice of manual scavenging, but also discrimination based on the caste hierarchy in the Indian society. Social apathy towards the manual scavengers has been deeply rooted in the majority of Indian subconscious minds. It has nullified the legal provisions, government schemes, political will and administrative acumen furbished for the eradication of the practice of manual scavenging. As a result of such situation a well-educated person belonging to manual scavenging community has not been able to come out of such inhuman practice, just to maintain their livelihoods.

While India’s being shown to the world as a strong nation of more than 1.3 billion people with decisive leadership, the other side of this pink picture also needs to be shown to the world. I have taken up the task to show the dark and melancholic but unseen real other side of the picture. In this film I have narrated the lives of the manual scavengers endangering their lives for cleaning the chocked gutters and sewage holes to earn the bread for their families. Despite the act for the eradication of manual scavenging enacted in 2013 by the parliament of India, even today nearly a million people are still engaged in manual scavenging and hundreds are dying in the gutter every year.

I have travelled through number of Indian states for the film to show that manual scavenging practice has not been limited to the states governed by any political party with specific ideology, but it is a widespread social ill. In my opinion, official definition of manual scavenging in India is incomplete. There are few more inhuman practices happens at grassroots like dragging dead animals and burning dead bodies in the name of religious myths are also manual scavenging because those are socially imposed practices and extremely bad for health.

The film depicts how the generation old caste system has made the communities of manual scavengers believe that they are only good for such murky work and it is their fate. While many have tried to come out of the practice of manual scavenging through getting proper education, they faced discrimination and apathy from the society, which pushed them back to the manual scavenging.

Due to belonging to the stigmatized caste whatever socio-political oppression I have faced in my life similar kind of oppression I can see happening with Valmiki community people and as a filmmaker it is my duty to bring out those horror stories to let world aware that how certain strata of the society are bound to do such work who are socially unacceptable and untouchable and living the life like subhuman.