Kolar Gold fields: As a school boy, Bezawada Wilson often watched his granduncle, Devadas, employed as a Safai Karmachari in Bharat Gold Mines Ltd (BGML), remove night soil with his bare hands, a repulsive sight which served as the foundation of his crusade against manual scavenging. Wilson has chosen to remain a bachelor while expanding his campaign from this mining town to all parts of the country.
His first questions about the inhuman system of manual scavenging, and on why only Dalits were forced to remove and carry night soil for dumping at designated spot cropped up when he was in fourth standard, but neither his granduncle or his uncle, Dayanand, could answer this school boy.
“All we could do was tell him that we were destined to do this job, but he never gave up, and kept asking why Safai Karmacharis were not provided any piece of equipment to remove night soil,” recalled his uncle, a retired labour officer of BGML.
Wilson’s siblings - Yesupadam, Mark and Annammaand other relatives were celebrating on Andhra Lane in Marikuppam on Wednesday evening.
Dayanand, 62, reminisced that Wilson, who moved to neighbouring town, Kuppam, and later to Hyderabad, collected pictures published in newspapers on manual scavenging whenever he visited his kin in KGF, and enclosed them along with petitions to the Union and state governments on the need to ban such a disgraceful system.
"He wanted to study and secure a good job, but even as he passed his Masters degree in Sociology, he led protests against manual scavenging here (KGF) and elsewhere," he told Deccan Chronicle.
Originally from Kambala Dinne near Orangal in Andhra Pradesh, Wilson moved along with his parents Jacob and Rahelamma to KGF as most of his relatives were employed as Safai Karmacharis in BGML.
"He is my youngest brother, but even as fourth standard student, he was able to read the Holy Bible and tell us about the verses," said his sister Annamma.
His sustained campaign against manual scavenging was appreciated by the top brass of BGML resulting in his elder brother, Yesu, a driver, landing in a bungalow in 2000, a year before closure of the mines.
"He is soft spoken and good natured. He comes over to our house for a chat whenever he visited KGF," says his neighbour Jayakumar.
