Their future lies in dirt

The sweepers filter gold dust from sewers then sell it back to jewellers

The members of the Muslim sweeper community collect the dirty water and mud from the nullahs. They then extract elements of gold and silver by heating it, and then resell the valuable metal to the jewellers

— Piyush Srivastava

In Sarafa Bazaar, Jhansi, over two dozen extremely poor Muslims have spent centuries searching the dirty sewer lines for gold. Their 'excavation' starts at around 2 pm and continues till 9 am in the morning, when the jewellers open their shops.

There is a nullah before the majority of these jewellery shops in which garbage and faeces flow. Members of a sweeper community search for grains of gold, precious stones and silver from the dirty water and mud flowing in drains in front of jewellery shops in Jhansi. Their daily collections are later resold to the jewellery shops.

These members of the Muslim sweeper community collect the dirty water and mud from the nullahs. They then extract elements of gold and silver by heating it, and then resell the valuable metal to the jewellers.Occasionally, they also stumble upon costly stones besides grains of gold and silver. They also sweep the roads with small brushes and often find coils and currency notes that customers drop by mistake.

Despite carrying shallow pans, trowels and small buckets, the sweepers collect mud and dirty water with their bare hands. When at work, they hardly talk to each other. However, their mechanical coordination suggests that they have been doing this activity for decades.“We also search for gold in the localities where jewellers live.

Their family members wear heavy gold ornaments. Negligible parts of the gold polish get washed when they take bath. That flows into the nullahs. We collect this water every day and keep extracting gold from it. We collect gold worth Rs 1,000-4,000 a month and sell it back to the jewellers,” said Mohammad Khaliq, who is into this job.

He added: “Later, we wash the dirt and filter it using white clothes. Sometimes, we boil the collected water or dirt to extract valuables.”

Anwar Alam, another person involved in this trade, said: “We belong to the sweeper community. It is our traditional job, which has been passed onto us by our parents. We started accompanying our elders from the age of 10 or 12 and learnt this art over the years.”

He said: “We don’t do anything that we shouldn’t do. All we are trying is to survive by putting in hard work. I am doing this for the past 35 years and I am comfortable in it.” He said that one can earn up to Rs 250 after a day’s toil in the Sarafa Bazar.

Alam added: “If lucky, we also find jewellery that a customer has lost. People ask us why we do such an obnoxious job. I tell them that our present and future lies in the dirt.” But what they don’t want to share with anyone is the darker side of their occupation. “The nullahs smell so bad that one cannot collect dirt in a normal state of mind. We consume drugs like grass and heroine before work that keeps us away from the foul smell,” said Khaliq.