The deaths of manual scavengers demand Justice, not Silence. The culprits of their death — whether individuals or institutions — must be held to account. This is not a matter of charity. It is a matter of constitutional duty, legal obligation, and human dignity.
Groundxero | May 29, 2025
While, the ruling class politicians, media channel anchors and the aspiring middle classes celebrate, though a bit prematurely, India becoming world’s fourth largest economy, overtaking Japan, a stark reality which should shame us is that, even today, a significant number of deaths of workers, manually cleaning sewers and septic tanks, occur every year in the country.
Though manual scavenging is banned, and the union government telling parliament that there is no death due to manual scavenging, the dehumanizing practice continues unabated, with deaths of workers employed in the tasks being reported at regular intervals. In five years, between 2020 and 2024, 294 confirmed sewer related deaths were reported from across the country.
Two days ago, on late Monday night, four men died after they entered a septic tank in Jaipur’s Sitapura Industrial Area to retrieve gold and silver particles for a jewellery factory. The Indian Express news on the incident said the workers were reluctant to enter the tank due to the intense heat and the presence of toxic gases. However, the company management allegedly persuaded them with the promise of extra money. The men are suspected to have died due to the toxic fumes in the tank.
The opposition Congress party criticised the Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government in Rajasthan over the deaths, with former CM Ashok Gehlot saying that 11 people had died in the state in the last 10 days while cleaning septic tanks and gutters.
On 22 May, three workers suffocated to death while cleaning a septic tank at a woolen garments unit in Bikaner, in Rajasthan. None were provided with any safety gear when they entered the tank. Workers cleaning such tanks are required to wear protective equipment, including oxygen masks, but these basic mandated safety measures are seldom followed under exploitative contractual arrangements.
On May 15, five workers got trapped inside a septic tank in the Deeg region of Rajasthan. One died and four others are critical. In April 2025, two sanitation workers, one a minor, lost their lives cleaning the sewer line at a paper mill in Alwar.
The situation is the same in other states. On February 2, 2025, two sanitation workers died and another was critically injured while cleaning a sewer near Mansa Devi Apartments in Narela, Outer Delhi. The men, hired by a private contractor, were made to descend into a toxic pit without any safety equipment.
Days later, three more workers—Farzem Sheikh, Hashi Sheikh, and Suman Sardar—all from Murshidabad, West Bengal—died while cleaning a clogged drain in the Bantala area of the Kolkata Leather Complex. The workers, engaged by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), were reportedly swept into a manhole after a pipe burst, leading to their tragic deaths. Their bodies were recovered hours later by police, fire services, and disaster response teams. The Mayor of Kolkata, Firhad Hakim, attributed the cause to toxic gas accumulation from industrial discharge and announced an inquiry. Yet such enquiries rarely lead to convictions or reform.
On 9 March, four migrant labourers from West Bengal lost their lives due to suffocation while cleaning a water tank at a 40-storey under-construction building in Mumbai’s Nagpada area. Workers at the construction site said it was common practice to step into tanks without protective gears. “No safety kit was provided. They should have left the tank open for a few hours to let the gases escape,” said an injured worker, Bhutan Shiekh. Family members of the deceased alleged that the tank had not been cleaned for two years, leading to the accumulation of toxic gases, which caused the death of the workers due to suffocation.
On March 16, Panth Lal Chandra, aged 43, a migrant to Delhi from Chhattisgarh, descended into a clogged manhole in the posh New Friends Colony in south Delhi. He had no protective gear on, fell unconscious as he inhaled the toxic fumes from waste, and passed away. Even government agencies like Delhi Jal Board allegedly avoid responsibility through contractualisation, hiring poor migrants as “disposable workers” in the hazardous and dehumanising practice of cleaning sewer and septic tanks.
In another fatal incident, on 16 May, two men were killed while cleaning the septic tank of a house without safety equipment in Faridabad’s Sikri village. On the same day, three contract workers—Prakash Parmar, Vishal Thakor, and Sunil Rathva, all approximately 20 years old—died after inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning a septic tank inside a garment factory in the Danilimda area in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The factory had been closed for a year, and cleaning was being undertaken ahead of its reopening. The workers were employed by a private contractor. Authorities confirmed that no safety protocols were followed, and the case is under investigation.
While the government continues to claim that manual scavenging has been eradicated, the recent spate of preventable deaths of sewer and septic workers across the country reveals a devastatingly different truth — one marked by impunity, systemic caste violence, and institutional neglect. In July 2024, the Government informed the Rajya Sabha that 377 people had died between 2019 and 2023, while they were involved in the hazardous task of cleaning sewer and septic tanks; and in Delhi alone, more than 72 people died between 2013 and 2024 while manually cleaning sewers (according to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis). At least 20 manual scavenger deaths are reported from February 2025 to May 2025.
These deaths occurred even after a Supreme Court order (January 29, 2025) which categorically banned manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in India’s major metropolitan areas, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. The bench, led by Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar, was ruling on a petition filed by Dr Balram Singh. Despite this landmark ruling, fatal incidents continue to be reported with alarming frequency.
Manual scavengers in India remain one of the most exploited labour groups. According to data, nearly 92% of sanitation workers belong to historically oppressed and marginalised communities, predominantly Dalits, and are routinely subjected to systemic caste-based discrimination. These deaths are not just accidents — they are a direct result of structural casteism, economic exploitation, and deliberate neglect. These workers are typically hired through private contractors or informal arrangements, depriving them of job security, fair wages, legal protections, and access to safety equipment. Despite the clear legal prohibition under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and constitutional protections under Article 21 (Right to Life) and Article 17 (Abolition of Untouchability), governments and private entities continue to flout the law with impunity.
Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) in a press statement on 23 May, called for urgent and decisive action to address the continued and preventable deaths of manual scavengers in India. DASAM demanded the immediate registration of FIRs in all recent fatalities under the applicable legal provisions; each incident to be subject to an independent, time-bound judicial inquiry with full transparency and public disclosure of findings. DASAM further called for a minimum compensation of Rs 30 lakh to the families of the deceased, along with comprehensive rehabilitation measures, including access to housing, education, and employment opportunities for dependents. Additionally, it demanded a nationwide audit of sanitation work practices, with particular attention to private enterprises and urban local bodies, and a complete ban on sub-contracting such work to unregulated and unaccountable labour intermediaries.
These measures are not merely remedial—they are necessary steps toward upholding constitutional rights, ensuring legal accountability, and affirming the dignity and humanity of all sanitation workers. We cannot afford a situation where deaths in sewers are met with silence, not justice. These workers are not invisible cogs. Their lives are not expendable. Their deaths are not inevitable.
The culprits of their death — whether individuals or institutions — must be held to account. This is not a matter of charity. It is a matter of constitutional duty, legal obligation, and human dignity.
Ref: Various newspaper reports; Press release of Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) dated 23 May.