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.