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From 'untouchable' to role model
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by renovatio | July 15, 2008 at 12:53 am
520 views | 42 Recommendations | 11 comments
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As a Dalit, the lowest level in India's complex caste system, she was a so-called scavenger, a person who collects the garbage, feces and urine of other higher caste people. In the eyes of many, that would make her too disgusting to touch.
"They used to call me all kind of names,'' Chaumar, now 33, said. "I used to feel very bad. but what could I do? I didn't have any work to do but this job."
Traditionally, the age-old Hindu caste system is a social hierarchy that determines what occupation a person should pursue. Broadly, the system has four major castes and thousands of sub-castes.
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renovatio
Jakarta, Indonesia
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (11)
at 01:51 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 02:01 on July 15th, 2008
thanks' Mr. Sanjay...
at 03:39 on July 15th, 2008
Renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 03:59 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff. This is inspiring and surely my native Filipino race will relate to your story.
at 04:33 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 04:38 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff. I really liked this story as a matter of a fact I was about to do it went I searched I saw you had already. I love that the UN made her Princess.
at 05:17 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.
All my wishes is for the woman to live up to the promise what she should do, to continue to be a role model for the people of the world.
at 05:18 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Great Story! We need more of these role models in India.
at 05:47 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.Certainly when the same culture screams discrimination in the west., yet practise it freely with no backlash in their own country. We have a couple in BC barred from joining a British Columbia Sikh temple because a few generations ago, because this temple is for a farming caste.
at 06:33 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 08:11 on July 15th, 2008
renovatio,
I hope they get more funding to pay for quality sanitation facilities so these women can be freed from this terrible work. I worked ten years as a janitor and even in our "free" society there is a level of discrimination against those who clean the trash and toilets. It is quite unkind to treat such necessary people poorly and pay them such low wages.