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Ahmedabad: Several little children in Gujarat are still suffering as manual scavengers. They are made to clean toilets and even cart away dead animals.

Nine-year-old Janakben goes to school like other children her age. But then in school she is treated differently. Janakben is sometimes asked to clean the toilets and sweep the classrooms. All because she belongs to the Dalit Valmiki caste.

"They make us clean the toilets. We are not allowed to eat food sitting with the others and I also have to sweep the classroom at times," said the class IV student.

It's is not just Janakben in Surendranagar, many other Dalit children in schools across Gujarat are forced to do the the same. They work as manual scavengers sometimes for a small remuneration.

"We have to drag away dead animals like cats and dogs. We are paid Rs 20 or Rs 25," said another Dalit boy Jagdish Harijan.

Social activists from the NGO Navsarjan brought this out in the open by organising a rally of about 1,000 such children. Gujarat is one of the 18 states which has adopted the act against manual scavenging.

However, the NGO's figures say that manual scavenging exists in 12 districts across Gujarat. And that of the 13 lakh manual scavengers in India, 65,000 are in Gujarat.

"The government has kept denying that manual scavenging exists. By organising these students, we want to show that this inhuman practice continues," said Executive Director, Navsarjan, Manjula Pradeep.

In 1911 it was at this very place that Mahatma Gandhi called scavenging a shame to the country. These children are proof the shame still exists nearly a hundred years on.

(With inputs from Shaoli Rudra)

More on: Manual scavenging, Gujarat, Dalit, Valmiki Dalit