Sewer deaths: The grim reality of manual scavenging

THREE men descended into a sewer in Bathinda on May 6 to clean a treatment plant. None came out alive. A week later, in Rohtak’s Majra village, a man and his two sons died one after the other, trying to rescue each other from a toxic manhole. On May 15 in Faridabad, a house owner jumped into a septic tank to save the cleaner he had hired. Both suffocated to death. These tragedies are not isolated accidents — they are institutional murders, rooted in apathy, illegality and caste. Despite the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and Supreme Court orders banning hazardous cleaning, such deaths continue unabated. Safety protocols are ignored, protective gear absent and accountability evaded. In Bathinda, FIRs were belatedly registered against a private contractor only after protests. In Faridabad and Rohtak, no case has yet been filed.

Governments routinely distance themselves from responsibility, blaming contractors. But who hires these contractors? Who fails to monitor safety standards? Municipalities and state agencies cannot shrug off their legal and moral duties by hiding behind outsourcing. This is also a story of caste. Most sanitation workers belong to marginalised communities historically forced into such degrading labour. Their lives are treated as expendable. Despite mechanisation funds being allocated — as seen in Delhi’s Rs 20-crore outlay for sludge removal — ground realities remain unchanged. Machines gather dust while humans are pushed into hellholes. This is the grim reality of manual scavenging.

The judiciary has spoken. Activists have warned. Data shows hundreds of deaths. Yet, the cycle of death continues, only interrupted by temporary outrage. It is time to make civic bodies directly accountable. Every sewer-related death must trigger automatic legal proceedings, compensation and departmental action. Technology must replace manual labour — not just on paper but also in practice. No one should die because we refuse to enforce the law.

Editorials