For more than 15 years, Sudharak Olwe tried to capture every possible moment in his camera but what touched him the most was the conservancy workers. “In a narrow lane of Mumbai, as I was looking at him, a woman living in a building nearby emptied a bucket of waste water on him. I managed to capture the exact moment in my frame. In the picture, you see a downtrodden man struggling through myriad odds to clean the dirt on the street. The worst was, the man could not retaliate,” veteran photojournalist and dna photo-editor, Sudharak Olwe, recounts.
Olwe recalls how by accident he descended into the lives of conservancy workers while completing his routine assignments. A walk with the conservancy worker revealed such a sight that he had never witnessed before. He witnessed how men and women were living and working in appalling conditions, only to ensure that the health and safety of Mumbai’s citizens is not endangered.
Olwe talks about how conservancy workers despise their routine job, which compels them to put themselves in danger knowingly. They complain because they lose a little dignity every day, until none is left. Despite the work and effort conservancy workers put in to clear the city’s underbelly, the society continues to look down upon the community, with disgust.
And that is what motivated Olwe to capture the conditions of these people and show them to the world. As Olwe vowed to make a difference to the lives of conservancy workers, he started to present their photographs before several school students across the city.
Meanwhile, as his efforts to narrate the untold story of conservancy workers continued, Olwe sent his pictures to the Tata Trust and the trust planned to release a book on this theme. Olwe’s book, 'In Search of Dignity and Justice', raises an important question before individuals and organisations – what can you do to help conservancy workers secure a basic human right to work and live with dignity? Olwe says, “My efforts don’t end here. As long as I have my camera in hand, I will continue to capture living beings, who need to be noticed by society. As for this subject, I would only request citizens to improve their civic sense and lighten the work load of the workers.”
Olwe’s book, 'In Search of Dignity and Justice' was launched on Thursday in Mumbai.
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