Jeevanbhai is one of the thousands of Dalits — Vankars, Rohits and Valmikis — across Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Patan and Saurashtra, who are poor enough live the life of scavengers. They collect dead animals to provide the hide to tanneries. And they depend on the flesh of the animal for food.

“We eat all dead animals, cow, bulls, buffalo and goats; only the ones which die out of a dog or snake bites are not eaten,” says Jeevanbhai. Carcasses of dogs and cats are not eaten either, but then disposal of those are not done by Vankars and Rohits. “That is done by Valmikis, who also work as sanitary workers,” he says.

“We cut the flesh of the dead animals in thin strips and dry them to preserve them for a long time,” says Chaturbhai Meria, a fellow Vankar of Jeevanbhai.

“Nobody in the village pays us a dime for the disposal of dead animals,” says Jeevanbhai. “But we have to do this. Hum neech log hain na, yeh to karna hi padta hain,” he says without rancour.

“For the skin, the agents from the nearby tanneries visit us and buy the leather,” he says. While the hide of a bull or a buffalo get them about Rs 250 to Rs 300, a good one occasionally gets as much as Rs 500 also.

As for the meat of dead animals, this is what Ambabhai Solanki, a member of Rohit community in Shodhi village in Ahmedabad district says: “We have been eating this for generations. If we refuse, the villagers tell us that it is our duty.”

“We tried stopping this couple of years ago, he added, “but then entire village boycotted us and we had to start this all over again.”

“The community in itself is divided,” says Vaju Parmar, a Dalit social worker from Dholka. “While Vankars and the Rohits dispose the ‘higher animals’ like cows, bulls buffalos and goats and eat their flesh, Valmikis only dispose the dead cats and dogs.”

While denying there is any social pressure, Jeevanbhai says that the higher castes will stop employing them in case they refuse to do this job.

With significant pressure from dominant upper castes like Darbar, Patels and Rajputs, the Dalits refuse to raise their voice, says Parmar. And it appears that with time, things, instead of getting better, are getting worse.

“Earlier, by tanning the hides, these communities could make some money. Now with mechanised tanneries set up by the upper caste industrialists, the community is losing out on that as well,” says Manjula Pradeep, Executive Director, Navsarjan.