Not Human??

"Death of two workers while cleaning the drain" read the breaking news. Sixty Plus years since self rule, we really have moved forward. We now are implementing metro in different cities, talking about bullet trains, faster ways of getting passports done, gas pipelines and so on. Technology has influenced all walks of life. There is only a small catch, Technology has influenced all walks of life of influential people. I wont be surprised if we succeed in sending man to space, but our drains continue to be cleaned by human beings with minimum or no protection and shall continue to be so. Waste disposal, cleaning drains....I see a few contorted faces. It's dirty, yukky...what about it! Just the mention of it brings distaste, but there are a few lesser humans who are forced to live disposing the waste with bare bodies and no protection. In the process, also are subject to some harmful diseases. "But who has asked them to do it, isn't it a choice they have made. Some one has to do it". Yes it is a devil's choice they have made, because they belong to a particular social class and social strata. Even today inspite of so much "progress" the people who have do "these" jobs belong to the traditionally defined "lower" castes. Caste we have never gotten over it, but human I thought we were. When technology could change so much make the world a better place to live in, why hasn't it been used to better the lives of "these" people. Probably because it doesn't matter, because they do not have the power to  influence change. On one side, we are worried about the powerful fumes of pollution and here they spend their lives exposed to much more harmful things. And the moment we see a garbage we are ready with covering our noses and faces so that our "beautiful" bodies do not get "touched" by them. If we just move a step backward, technology has probably bettered only the lives of people "who mattered", after all who cares about these faceless, nameless people, they are born into garbage and die cleaning it. Some body has to clean it, as long as it is not me it doesn't matter! It only reiterates our commitment that not today but not even in the future does there seem to be any possibility of their lives becoming better. Now we can happily go back to the casteist karmic philosophy and say "No work is menial, all work is good. Do work and do not expect returns" so that we can shit and others can clean without any moral baggage.