PROBE INTO SEWER DEATHS ORDERED

NEW DELHI: Even after the ban, the manual scavenging is becoming the reason behind the deaths of innocent persons in Delhi. The death of five men on Sunday was not the first death but there are several other cases where the persons had to enter the sewer which is filled with toxic gases risking their lives and ending in death.

In 1993, the Narasimha Rao-led government took the resolution to ban this work and passed a law. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition act 1993) was passed by the Union Government and many states passed the same resolution. But, it was just merely a law in pen and paper, the implementation of this Act never happened properly and the system never stopped existing.

Ten years later in 2013, another law was passed, The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act 2013. This made the work illegal and it also has a provision of punishment for the contractors who employ these labourers. However, the employment of manual scavengers continued. According to reports, nearly 27 manual scavengers work in the Capital even today. From 1994 to 2017 nearly 77 manual scavengers have died in Delhi.

In the year 2017, a 48-yearold man died while cleaning the sewer on the premises of the hospital. In another case, three workers died cleaning sewer line in south Delhi. The deaths come barely a month after four people had died of asphyxiation cleaning a tank in Ghitorni, also in south Delhi. In the year 2018, from a prominent five-star hotel in Lutyens' Delhi after five men got trapped when they went for cleaning the plant.

In the present case, five men died inside the sewer. The National Human Rights Commission claimed that it had taken suo-motu cognizance of similar matter in the year 2000 and after discussions with various departments had finalized "Guidelines and Safety Code for Operation and Maintenance of Sewerage Systems" for compliance by the concerned authorities.