Usha Chaumar

For much of her life, Usha Chaumar did one of the hardest and most humiliating jobs in India: cleaning dry toilets by hand and carrying away human waste. Today she leads an organisation that helps others leave that work behind.

A childhood without childhood

Usha was born into a Valmiki family in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan ^[2][3]. The women in her family had done this work for generations, and she began going out with her mother to do it when she was only about seven ^[2][3]. She was married at ten and later moved to Alwar, where the same work, and the same stigma, followed her ^[2][3].

Neither she nor her husband had been to school ^[2]. People treated her as untouchable. She earned very little, and her official citation describes years of daily insults and hardship ^[2].

A visit that changed everything

In 2003, Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the sanitation organisation Sulabh International, came to Alwar and met women who did this work ^[2][3]. At first, the idea of doing anything else sounded impossible to them ^[3].

Usha decided to try. She joined Nai Disha, a training centre set up in Alwar for women leaving manual scavenging ^[2][3]. There she learned to make pickles, papads and other food, along with crafts such as stitching bags ^[2][3]. Something surprising happened: people in her village who had once avoided her began buying the food she made ^[2]. She was also able to enter the village temple, which had been closed to her before ^[3].

Finding her voice

Usha learned to read and write Hindi, and some English too ^[2]. In 2007, she was made president of the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation ^[2].

Since then, she has spoken to audiences in India and abroad about health, hygiene, sanitation and the dignity of every person ^[2]. Her travels have included a visit to the United Nations in New York, as well as trips to Europe and Africa ^[2][3].

Recognition

On 25 January 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs named Usha Chaumar for the Padma Shri, under Social Work, from Rajasthan ^[1]. She has also received other honours, including the Sat Paul Mittal National Award for her work for manual scavengers ^[2].

Usha has described her journey as living two lives in one birth ^[3]. Her story is a reminder that people can change what society expects of them, and that a little support at the right moment can open a door that seemed closed forever.