The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to reply to a plea highlighting the deaths of sewage workers.
A Division Bench of Justices Ranjit More and S.P. Tavade was hearing a criminal public interest litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Abha Singh following increasing cases of deaths of sewage workers. The alarming frequency of deaths, the PIL says, indicates that the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, are not being implemented.
The PIL mentions the increasing number of sewer deaths in the city despite the fact that manual scavenging and unprotected sewer operations are banned under the law since 1993. It further says that manual scavenging is modern day untouchability and in violation of Article 17 (abolishes the practice of untouchability) of the Constitution.
The PIL says that on January 9, two conservancy workers and a contractor died of asphyxiation in a Panvel sewage manhole/CIDCO; on January 16 three labourers died after inhaling toxic gas in a civic sewage treatment plant at Mira Road; on March 16, five BMC workers inhaled poisonous fumes, one of whom died, in a 15-feet manhole at Nana Chowk; on May 3, three people died while cleaning a septic tank in Nallasopara; and later in May three men died in a septic tank at a housing society in Thane.
“Lack of protective gear has been cited as the reason for death. Till date, not a single criminal conviction regarding these deaths has been reported and most are classified as accidental deaths by the police. This is in stark violation of certain sections of the Act which provides for imprisonment if manual scavengers are employed or humans are made to clean sewers,” the PIL states.
The PIL also refers to an RTI query, to which the BMC replied that no deaths have taken place. Moreover, as per information about the safety measures, as provided by the BMC, safety equipment does not contain full body suits, oxygen cylinders, and gas masks. It is an accepted practice in other countries like China, U.S., and Japan to use such protective gear.
