I knew about the caste system in India, but I had no idea it was so depraved. And still in action. A Christian Science Monitor story details the Balmikis, or scavengers, who subsist by carrying away, by hand, the body waste of higher castes.
From the story:
“It is one of the astounding contradictions of modern India, and a fact notably missing from the ruling party’s current feel-good ad campaign, that this “inhuman” practice continues even today. At a time when growing numbers of urban and even rural Indians own mobile phones and drive expensive foreign cars, where Indian software engineers are busy creating the “next big thing,” and where Indian rocket scientists today are planning a joint US-Indian mission to the moon, more than three quarters of the nation’s citizens live without access to a simple toilet.”
