Salvation for community lost in manhole

Thiruvananthapuram: Ravikumar holds Vidhu Vincent’s ‘Manhole’ close to his heart not because it is his acting debut but because the film could be the ticket to salvation for the scavenging community.  

“Our sufferings are largely ignored. Though some good souls had attempted to raise it through a couple of documentaries and newspaper reports, no one had bothered to listen. But the response to ‘Manhole’ gives us the hope that the world will at last sit up and take notice,” said Ravikumar, a professional scavenger, after ‘Manhole’ was premiered to a packed audience at the IFFK on Sunday.

An intriguing administrative requirement for proof of their origin is perpetuating scavenging. This is especially true for Chakkiliya community, of which Ravikumar is a member. There are about 10-12 students in the community who pass their 10th standard every year. “We would like them to study more, become an engineer or doctor, and therefore feel liberated,” Ravikumar said. But this ideal of social evolution remains elusive because the community members are denied caste certificates. The dream of making it to an engineering or medical college is thus effectively squashed.

“When we apply for an SC certificate, we are asked to furnish proof that we had been repatriated from Thenkasi. But no such proof exists today,” Ravikumar said. The need for such a proof is inexplicable as Thenkasi was then part of Travancore. “Without the certificate, our children are not getting admission to good professional colleges and our youth are finding it impossible to secure good jobs,” he said.

The community was brought from Thenkasi, now in Tamil Nadu, in 1924 to overcome a major public health crisis in Kollam municipality. A major epidemic had broken out in certain parts of the municipality as there was no one willing to remove human excreta from latrine pits, which then had to be done daily. They came and lives were saved.

Now, nine decades after, while the rest of the world has moved on, the Chakkiliya community languish in a forgotten past. The discrimination towards them is not limited to the denial of a caste certificate. It is absolute. They still live in the same uninhabitable space where they were dumped in 1924, in a cremation ground in Kollam. “Even after all these years we have not been provided property rights over the patch of land that was allotted to us,” Ravikumar said.

They also continue to suffer a kind of untouchability. During the shoot of ‘Manhole, Baiju, the noted theatre actor who plays a scavenger in the film, went to have breakfast in a tea stall nearby in his scavenger disguise. He asked for ‘dosa’ and egg curry. “The waiter looked at me as though I had uttered something unspeakable and told me that I will be given only ‘dosa’ and chutney,” Baiju said.

He did not object, just played along. But after having his fill of dosa and chutney, he washed, paid his money and then went back to the waiter and gave him a Rs 10 tip. “You should have seen his look. I didn’t check whether the guy committed suicide later,” he said.