SPEAKING
FREELY In the men's room, China leaves
India standing By Pallavi Aiyar
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
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BEIJING - What is
usually lost in the fashionable discussions
comparing India and China as models of economic
growth and development is the fact that
development is not solely about shiny surfaces and
broad roads. China has indeed outstripped India by
these criteria, but perhaps even more
significantly, it has transformed its formerly
feudalistic, stratified society into a modern
state of relatively flattened social structures
and belief in the dignity of labor.
Middle
class Indians in cities, flushed with metro and
mall-generated excitement, are wont to dismiss the
caste system as a relic that no longer holds sway,
at least in urban areas. Yet, the
steady stream of
jamadars who spend their days cleaning out
the toilets of houses both modest and grand, a job
that other domestic staff resolutely refuse to
consider, is indicative of just how deeply rooted
caste consciousness is. Gandhi himself identified
toilet cleaning as key to revolutionizing society.
He stressed repeatedly that in a society's
approach to private and public sanitation lay its
commitment to true freedom and dignity. But if
Gandhi was correct in his beliefs, then it is
authoritarian China, not democratic India that has
in fact achieved self-respect for its citizens.
Yu Bao Ping started work as a public
toilet cleaner and attendant in Beijing's Jiao Dao Kou
neighborhood last September. Originally a rice
farmer from Anhui province, the
38-year-old is ecstatic at having landed such a
good job. He says that compared to the
backbreaking labor of farming, cleaning toilets is
a cinch. It gives him a stable income, and more
importantly, a chance to broaden his horizons in
the big city.
"I have made so many friends
through the toilet," he says. In several older
sections of Beijing, homes still lack private
bathrooms and an entire lane uses the communal
facilities. Yu works in one such community
latrine. "Everyone in this neighbourhood comes
through these doors," he says, "and I have met so
many different kinds of people, including
foreigners."
In many parts of India,
people still rush off to take a bath if they
accidentally touch a bhangi (night soil
worker). The confidence with which this reporter's
neighbourhood toilet cleaner, Lou Ya, shook hands
when approached for an interview, is indicative of
just how different social relations are in China.
Lou Ya, 27, a former waitress from Sichuan province, says if
she could do anything she pleased, she would pick
being a hairdresser. But in the meantime, she is
teaming up with her husband, Ou Zhi Sheng, as a
toilet attendant and cleaner. Husband and wife
divide the work: he takes the men's room, she the
ladies'. What she likes best about the job is the
steady income, around 700 yuan (US$90) per month,
and the fact that it provides she and Ou with
rent-free accommodation.
Hundreds of fancy
new public restrooms, complete with flush toilets
and hand dryers, are currently being constructed
by Beijing's municipal authorities in the run up
to the 2008 Olympics. These new "luxurious
lavatories", as they have been dubbed by Chinese
media, have gleaming compartments for men, women
and disabled users, and as a final addition a tiny
room housing the 24-hour attendants.
Lou
Ya, says she doesn't think it odd at all to be
living inside a toilet. The little room that
houses the husband-wife duo has a bunk bed, a
small TV set, a fan and even a stove. It's a home
that happens to be extremely close to their place
of work. And not coincidentally, it gives them an
incentive to keep the toilets spotless and
odor-free.
Even in China, though, cleaning
toilets is not a profession completely free of
stigma. Lou Ya admits that there are people who
would view her work with revulsion. "But I am
standing on my own two feet and earning money,"
she says, "and I am proud of it." There are times
when she feels a little disheartened with the
daily drudgery of her work. These are times when
"people make a big mess". But it's at these times
that she remembers the story of the famous
sanitation worker, Shi Chuanxiang, and draws
inspiration.
Following the Communist
Revolution in 1949, the Chinese government began
the practice of annually electing "model workers":
exemplary figures from the country's vast working
class intended to instill in citizens a respect
for manual labor. Shi Chuanxiang, who spent more
than 40 years of his life shoveling and carrying
manure from hole-in-the-ground public bathrooms,
was one such model worker and became an idealized
figure across the country after he was received by
Liu Shaoqi, the then president, in 1959. His story
is compulsory reading in elementary schools even
today.
As China transitions into a
capitalist culture, divisions along class-lines
have certainly re-emerged. The penniless migrant
worker and urban yuppie are separated by an
enormous socioeconomic divide. Yet, a general
belief in the dignity of labor has developed in
Chinese society a progressive mindset, from which
India still seems generations away.
Pallavi Aiyar is the Beijing
correspondent for the Indian Express
newspaper.
Copyright (c) 2005 Pallavi
Ayar. Used by permission.
Speaking
Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
