NHRC seeks report on sanitation worker’s death in Ashok Vihar

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognisance of the death of one sanitation worker and serious injuries to three others while cleaning a sewer in Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area on September 16.

The commission issued notices to the Delhi Chief Secretary, the Municipal Commissioner and the Delhi Police Commissioner, asking them to submit a comprehensive report on the incident within two weeks. The report has to include details on the status of the police investigation, the health condition of the injured workers and, compensation for the deceased worker’s family and those injured.

According to the NHRC, the case raises concerns of human rights violations. “In spite of the Supreme Court’s directions and the NHRC’s advisory to all the states and the Union Territories to ensure safety of the sanitation workers, such tragic incidents are occurring frequently,” the commission noted.

The incident came to light after media reports on September 18 stated that four men were engaged by a private construction company for cleaning a sewer in Ashok Vihar without being provided safety equipment. Late on the night of September 16, a call was made to the Police Control Room regarding the situation.

Police personnel rushed the four workers to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital. One of them was declared brought dead by doctors, while the other three were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in critical condition. The company manager responsible for deploying the workers has been questioned, police said.

Now, the Supreme Court, in earlier judgments, had directed governments to mechanise sewer cleaning and provide protective equipment to sanitation workers where manual entry was unavoidable.

But the issue of sanitation workers dying on job seems to have continued unchecked for as per data released by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), on average, one sanitation worker has died every fifth day cleaning sewers or septic tanks since 2017.