The SMILE film club recently bounced back in full swing, holding film club meeting cum film screenings every Tuesday in Arts Faculty, North Campus. Here is the first hand experience of one such movie screening.

The meeting began almost on time with a healthy congregation of around 10 people. It was time for the screening of the film ‘Lesser Humans’ by Stalin K. The film prominently focused on the issue of manual scavenging with sharp undercurrents of several other social evils, as in there in our society. The plight of the scavenging community was on display with a razor’s edge, as scenes and narrations of their everyday ordeal filled the cinematic space. Agreeably, it wasn’t any pleasant or easy topic to deal with. It was quite interesting to observe the expressions of all those who were present at the screening fluctuating in tandem with the plight of the community. The acrimonious shots of people cleaning night soil and carrying it over their heads made audience squirm in their seats. It was actually a jaw dropping experience for most of them, as some of the audience tried to buckle under the flurry of hard hitting ‘shit-scenes’ either by slanting their faces away or trying to lessen the intake of the ballistic truth with squinted eyes. As soon as the screening came to an end and lights were on, there was absolute silence, occasionally broken by the understandable clearing of throat, most of them for sure would have got a lump; faces were pale and eyes completely dazed.

Though the film pivoted around manual scavenging, it also unearthed other very serious issues than actually accentuate the central theme. It was actually a broad spectrum analysis of the issue of scavenging, wherein caste system, apathy of the general public, negligence by the judiciary, legislative and the executive all have collaborated to make them the ‘slave of the slaves’, driven to such extreme periphery, that literally they are living on the edge. The reactions were all borne out of sheer shock and awe of the appalling situation. Rehana, one of the participants reacted to the movie as “stunned, disgusted”, thinking of the people who have to actually do it. Bhavna enquired surprisingly if there is any way out for those in suffering. Isha related to the problem in a way that has to do something with corruption, which constricts the people from going up the ladder. The range of expressions swung from being “helpless and frustrated” to “ashamed and responsible for all this”.

Manmeet facilitated the entire proceeding and she started off interestingly with a salvo “if anyone ever has tried to enquire as to who is cleaning our shit in own homes or surroundings” It almost flared up the already flaming discussion. During the course of discussion, the participants wondered if technology could be the answer. Here David, who is from Canada, delivered a very interesting point, “Even in Canada, there are people who coming and cleaning your shit. These people are either minority or are neglected lot.” This made us wonder, even in our context “why only a Bhangi has to clean up the mess”. The discussion towards the later stages turned more towards finding solutions. It was nice to see everyone coming forward with their own bit on solutions or ways to address this issue. Radhika opined “It wouldn’t be nice to take away their jobs. The idea would be provide them with better opportunities. All this can be carried out simultaneous to the process of restoring respect to profession and community in general.” “More opportunities” almost echoed from mouth to mouth but Prachi felt that “It’s not so easy to take steps when you are so vulnerable”. Manmeet cited the example of one meeting where Martin tried to explore what the people really wished to do, given the freedom to choose their profession. The most natural response was that they wanted to carry on with their work although with better equipments. Then they said they would open a shop selling cleaning items. It took enormous efforts and amount of prodding to enable one person imagine that they could open a saree shop. Amidst, all soul searching and discussion regarding caste system, Swati popped a very pertinent question, "How many of us are ready to marry a lower caste person"? Well, to some extent the question was partly rhetorical, in the sense that it underlined the need of a paradigm shift in our perspective, in our approach to this issue. There must be a concerted, collective effort of positive change that should start at the individual level and ultimately result in a societal change aiming at restoring respect and dignity to the community. Improving their lot only becomes imperative.

Posted in: Flim Club Screening on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at at 10:17 AM