Almost 420 first information reports ( FIRs) have been lodged in connection with around 920 deaths inside sewers in the country between 1993 and January 31, 2020, as per the data tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The numbers, given in response to a question by Chandra Prakash Joshi, also show a huge disparity in the number of deaths and the registering of FIRs among States.
For instance, Tamil Nadu which registered 206 deaths between 1993 and January 2020, recorded only 28 FIRs, while Gujarat which had 161 deaths recorded 125 FIRs in the same period. States which have seemingly fared better in registering FIRs are Karnataka, where 66 FIRs were lodged for 78 deaths, and Andhra Pradesh where 23 deaths were reported and 22 FIRs lodged. In certain States like West Bengal where 19 deaths have been reported not a single FIR has been filed.
“These figures clearly point out the disparity in the filing of FIRs,” Bezwada Wilson, national convener of Safai Karmachari Andolan told The Hindu.
Also read|110 deaths by cleaning sewers, septic tanks in 2019
Mr. Wilson explained that in cases where multiple deaths take place in a single incident, a single FIR may have been registered, thereby accounting for the relatively fewer FIRs. However, he said in many cases the FIRs have not been lodged at all.
Referring to a Supreme Court judgment of March 27, 2014 and the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, Mr. Wilson said in every case of death while cleaning sewers, FIR has to be mandatorily filed.
“Our experience tells that in most of cases of sewer deaths, where the workers are engaged by a municipality either directly or through a contractor, the FIRs are filled; but in cases of deaths while cleaning septic tanks, there is hardly any filing of FIRs.” Mr. Wilson said what is more important than filing FIRs is the need to ascertain how many chargesheets have been filed or whether anyone has been held guilty or not.
Ashif Shaikh, national convener of the Raashtriya Garima Abhiyaan ((National Campaign for Dignity), said their organisation did a study of almost 200 cases across 10 States and found that not many family members had any idea of the police complaints after people in their family died while cleaning sewers.
Also read|Sewer deaths: Centre calls for quick response units
“We did the survey in 2018 and got different kinds of response as far as filing FIR is concerned. Some said no FIR was lodged. Some families said they have heard of a complaint being lodged but they do not have papers and some could produce documents,” he said.
Mr. Shaikh said the data of sewer deaths and the FIRs are mostly sent from State governments or district authorities to the National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation and in certain cases the authorities report such cases only for compensation. The activist added that there would be only a handful cases in the country where arrests for sewer deaths in the country could have taken place.
The data reveals that of the 920 deaths in 558 cases (60%), compensation of ₹10 lakh has been awarded. In 161 cases (17.5%) compensation of less than ₹10 lakh was awarded. Mr. Wilson asked why despite a Supreme Court order compensation of less than ₹10 lakh was given. In 164 cases (17.8 %) no payment of compensation has not been confirmed. Gujarat has recorded 32 cases of non-payment of compensation and in 30 cases the data states that the legal heir for paying compensation could not be traced. In Tamil Nadu out of nine cases where compensation has not been given in six cases legal heir has not been traced.
