Bezwada Wilson

Bezwada Wilson (born 1966) is an Indian activist and one of the founders and National Convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), an Indian human rights organization that has been campaigning for the eradication of manual scavenging, the construction, operation and employment of manual scavengers has been illegal in India since 1993. His work at SKA, a community-driven movement, has been recognized by the Ashoka Foundation which has nominated him a Senior Fellow.. On 27 July 2016, he was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Bezwada was born in 1966 in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Karnataka in Southern India. He is the youngest child of Rachel Bezwada and Jacob Bezwada, both belonging to the scavenger community.

His father began working for the township in 1935 as a safai karamchari, also called a manual scavenger, manually removing excreta from dry toilets. He attempted to find other manual labor, but was unsuccessful. His eldest brother also worked as a manual scavenger in the Indian railways for four years and then ten years in KGF Gold mines township.

Bezwada went to upper primary school in Andhra Pradesh and stayed in the hostel for Scheduled Castes. He went to high school and intermediate in Kolar and Hyderabad. In school, he was teased by the other students, who called him ‘thoti’, which meaning 'scavenger'. His parents told him that he was teased as such because of a "thoti" (a huge garbage bin) beside their house. When he discovered his parents' true occupation, he contemplated suicide.

Bezwada graduated in Political Science from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University,Hyderabad and involved in community service, especially youth programs. He saw that many children dropped out of school and then took up scavenging. He believed that if he helped the children complete school and take vocational training they could keep away from scavenging.

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