Ashoka
This description of Bezwada Wilson's work was prepared when Bezwada Wilson was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2009.
Introduction
Bezwada Wilson is leading a nationwide movement to abolish the dehumanizing practices of manual toilet cleaning and scavenging in India. Bezwada and his organization, Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), have served as a watchdog, pushing for legal action to demolish dry toilets across India and preparing manual scavengers to achieve new sources of income. His goal is to detach manual scavenging and sanitary work from Dalits, in the larger context of reforming the caste system, by pushing government agencies to replace manual scavenging with mechanization.