I was not sure for the title of this post but it’s related with change in society. All debates and politics over reservation are meaningless when the stomach craves for food and this is so right. It could be fire in the belly or simply the necessity to survive, but a quiet social revolution has begun unfolding in several cities of Uttar Pradesh, where brahmins and upper caste Hindus are applying for posts of sanitary workers, known as “safai karamcharis”.

“There are vaishyas and kayasthas too who have applied for the post of safai karamchari but the number of brahmin applicants is sizeable,” says an Agra Nagar Nigam official. Udit Sharma and Suraj Misra, both young graduates, are among the applicants for the post of safai karamchari in Agra.

“We have been looking for jobs for the past two years but we have failed to get one so far. We need to earn our living, and so we thought we might as well work as safai karamcharis here,” says Udit Sharma.

Suraj Misra’s mother, Savitri Misra, has already warned her son that if he goes ahead with the job, he would be shown the door and, the family would have to face social ostracism. But Suraj is not perturbed. “I am not bothered about society and relatives because no one came forward to help us when my sister’s engagement broke off due to paucity of funds. I need a job and any job will do. Once I start earning, everything else will fall into place,” he says.

The chief development officer at Sitapur, Tahir Iqbal, admits that the upper caste candidates who have applied for the jobs of safai karamcharis appear determined to get the job. “There is a long list of Misra, Shukla, Tripathi and Tiwari candidates who have applied for these posts and they are eagerly waiting to get selected,” he said.

One of the candidates who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “It is better to become a scavenger than to become a criminal. If I do not get this job, I may have to take to crime to fend for my family, which is dependent on me for a square meal.”

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