Jean Carder
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Living in a box can be a good thing sometimes
Stray Thoughts
By Jean Carder
Sometimes if I stop to think a minute, I feel like I live in a box.
Some people might call it a rut but no matter if it’s a rut or a box, I have a pretty good one. I get up, go to work at a job I’m pretty good at and for the most part, enjoy. I have two children and a husband to chase after. I’m involved in my community, my church and my kids’ sports teams. I write this weekly column; I have plenty to keep me occupied.
But sometimes I get a glimpse of the world outside my box and realize just how sheltered, spoiled — and fortunate — I really am.
I was cruising the CNN Web site Monday night and saw a headline titled, “Woman goes from trash scavenger to princess.” OK, I’ll bite on that story, I thought, and clicked the link to pull up the full story on the computer screen.
It’s not exactly what I thought it would be. The article described the life of Usha Chaumar, a woman from Alwar, India, who is a Dalit. A Dalit is a person on the lowest level of India’s caste system. I knew that India is a country that believes all its citizens fall in certain rungs of society. Actually the caste system in India is supposed to be outlawed, but it’s hard for people to give up traditions no matter how bad a tradition might be.
If you’re born a Dalit, you’re always a Dalit. The Dalit have the lowliest of jobs. In Chaumar’s case, she collects the garbage and, this part is gross, the human waste of higher caste people. In the United States if you’re in housekeeping, sanitation or whatever you want to call it, you at least have proper cleaning tools including bleach and rubber gloves. Chaumar and people like her have nothing. If you’re old enough, you probably remember using an outhouse at one time or another. From what I gather in the CNN report, those outhouses would be positively palatial in India.
Chaumar is considered an “untouchable” in her native country. She earns about $7-10 each month doing these dirty jobs, but it’s enough to feed her three children.
Whatever caste system you are born in, you don’t escape. Unless you’re very, very lucky. And Chaumar is very, very lucky.
Enter Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International. Pathak actually belongs to India’s highest caste, but an incident in his youth changed him forever. When he was just 13 years old, the CNN story reports, he touched an untouchable. Because of that, his grandmother made him swallow cow dung, cow urine and Ganges water to purify him. (Makes taking the X-box away seem pretty mild, doesn’t it?)
That made such a profound effect on him (and I bet it did), Pathak has devoted himself to helping people like Chaumar. His organization helps promote human rights, environmental sanitation, health and hygiene, assists with education and other social issues in India.
Chaumar, along with other former untouchables, and Pathak were recently honored at the United Nations, which has declared this year as the Year of Sanitation to educate those, especially those in Third World countries, about the importance of proper sanitation.
While in New York, the women modeled saris they design and tailor. And Chaumar, who has learned to read and write, was crowned the Princess of Sanitation Workers complete with a gold crown.
In my busy life I know I don’t always take time to be appreciative of how very blessed I am. And even though I have a good box, sometimes the walls close in just a little bit. Next time that happens, I’ll try and remember that Chaumar would give anything to have my box.
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Some people might call it a rut but no matter if it’s a rut or a box, I have a pretty good one. I get up, go to work at a job I’m pretty good at and for the most part, enjoy. I have two children and a husband to chase after. I’m involved in my community, my church and my kids’ sports teams. I write this weekly column; I have plenty to keep me occupied.
But sometimes I get a glimpse of the world outside my box and realize just how sheltered, spoiled — and fortunate — I really am.
I was cruising the CNN Web site Monday night and saw a headline titled, “Woman goes from trash scavenger to princess.” OK, I’ll bite on that story, I thought, and clicked the link to pull up the full story on the computer screen.
It’s not exactly what I thought it would be. The article described the life of Usha Chaumar, a woman from Alwar, India, who is a Dalit. A Dalit is a person on the lowest level of India’s caste system. I knew that India is a country that believes all its citizens fall in certain rungs of society. Actually the caste system in India is supposed to be outlawed, but it’s hard for people to give up traditions no matter how bad a tradition might be.
If you’re born a Dalit, you’re always a Dalit. The Dalit have the lowliest of jobs. In Chaumar’s case, she collects the garbage and, this part is gross, the human waste of higher caste people. In the United States if you’re in housekeeping, sanitation or whatever you want to call it, you at least have proper cleaning tools including bleach and rubber gloves. Chaumar and people like her have nothing. If you’re old enough, you probably remember using an outhouse at one time or another. From what I gather in the CNN report, those outhouses would be positively palatial in India.
Chaumar is considered an “untouchable” in her native country. She earns about $7-10 each month doing these dirty jobs, but it’s enough to feed her three children.
Whatever caste system you are born in, you don’t escape. Unless you’re very, very lucky. And Chaumar is very, very lucky.
Enter Dr. Bindeswar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh International. Pathak actually belongs to India’s highest caste, but an incident in his youth changed him forever. When he was just 13 years old, the CNN story reports, he touched an untouchable. Because of that, his grandmother made him swallow cow dung, cow urine and Ganges water to purify him. (Makes taking the X-box away seem pretty mild, doesn’t it?)
That made such a profound effect on him (and I bet it did), Pathak has devoted himself to helping people like Chaumar. His organization helps promote human rights, environmental sanitation, health and hygiene, assists with education and other social issues in India.
Chaumar, along with other former untouchables, and Pathak were recently honored at the United Nations, which has declared this year as the Year of Sanitation to educate those, especially those in Third World countries, about the importance of proper sanitation.
While in New York, the women modeled saris they design and tailor. And Chaumar, who has learned to read and write, was crowned the Princess of Sanitation Workers complete with a gold crown.
In my busy life I know I don’t always take time to be appreciative of how very blessed I am. And even though I have a good box, sometimes the walls close in just a little bit. Next time that happens, I’ll try and remember that Chaumar would give anything to have my box.