RAISING A STINK
Ten sewer workers in Delhi have died in a little over a month owing to exposure to toxic gases in sewers they were cleaning. Death of workers in sewers is not new. It was also reported from Mumbai and Bengaluru earlier this year. A look at the daily chall
workers & their work
25-year-old Vikas, strips down and lowers himself into a sewer full of silt. Soon he is up to his chest in black muck. He fills a pail with the silt, which his co-workers pull out with the help of the rope attached to it, and empty it, before sending it back to him. The stench is overpowering, even for someone standing near.
The first time I entered a sewer I badly cut my arm and foot on a piece of glass. It was 11 years ago, but the mark of that injury remains. It took me 15-20 days to recover, says Vikas.
Such injuries are not uncommon. “Often there are snakes inside if the manhole cover has been left open. The authorities don’t even pay for treatment, unless it is something major that requires hospitalisation,” says Ratendra Singh, Vikas’s supervisor.
The Supreme Court has criminalised entering sewers without safety gear, even in emergency situations, and said that the work should be mechanised as far as possible. But sewer workers say the order remains only on paper. “Many of us become alcoholics. It is difficult to do this in your senses. The stench stays even after we come out,” says Mahendra, a worker in Faridabad.
50,000 TO ONE LAKH
is the approximate number of safai karamcharis in Delhi alone, says Manhar Valjibhai Zala, chairman of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK). “We don’t know how many of these are sewer workers,” he says, adding that the Commission is in the process of compiling a state-wise list of their number to get an all-India figure.
their family
Pooja didn’t know that her husband Brajesh was a sewer worker when she got married. Her own father had been a sanitation worker, but as far as she knows he didn’t clean sewers. He was also a permanent government employee, unlike Brajesh, who is a contract worker.
Ajay, whose brother Yoginder is one of the 10 sewer workers who died in Delhi last month, says his children found out that he and his brothers had been sewer workers only after his brother died.
“I have a different reputation in society and I felt bad admitting that I do this work,” says Ajay in a low voice. “You might call it sewer...for the kids it is a gutter, their father worked in the gutter.” He and his three other siblings have stopped this work after Yoginder’s death.
Pooja says she is worried about her husband’s safety when he enters the sewers, especially when she hears of workers dying inside manholes. But she is equally, if not more, worried about how their father’s profession will affect the children’s future.
the earnings
People from our caste (Valmiki) are stereotyped as sanitation workers. I would like to work as a saleswoman, but my family tells me I will only get this kind of work if I disclose my caste. I fear my children may be abused and isolated in school because of my husband’s work.
We get no medical allowance, only a litte soap and water to wash off the muck. Safety gear such as gloves or boots or gas masks are not given either, says Ajay. Many workers say at times they don’t even have a safety belt and just tie a rope around their waist and go down.
Workers are divided into three main categories – permanent employees of a government
agency, contractual or casual workers attached to a government agency or private workers working for a contractor or thekedar.
~6,000~7,000
a month is the average earning of contract/private sewer workers HT spoke to in Delhi NCR. They get no health or retirement benefits either, they say. The gap between the earnings of contract/private workers and private safai karamcharis is huge. Workers interviewed by HT said their counterparts with permanent government jobs earned as much as ₹20,000 or even more and also enjoyed health and retirement benefits.
“Often state or central government instructions regarding minimum wages and benefits of safai karamcharis are not followed by private contractors,” says Zala.
According to the 2015-16 Annual Report of the NCSK even states are often reluctant to pay the minimum approved wage. They have notified minimum wages on their own, which varies from state to state. Workers say they depend on private odd jobs to get by.
Most sewer workers are from the Valmiki or dalit community. Zala says at some places safai karamcharis with permanent government jobs are from the upper castes, but they don’t do sewer work.
their health 1,470
sewer deaths have been reported between 1993 and now, according to the Safai Karmachari Andolan data. The SC has awarded a compensation of ͉10 lakh for families of victims, but many are yet to get it.
Skin diseases, poor eyesight and breathing trouble are the most common health problems faced by sewer workers.
In extreme cases, gas inhalation can lead to death. “The most dangerous gases that are commonly present in the sewers are methane, carbon monoxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide” says Dunu Roy of Hazards Centre.
There’s a tell-tale odour at times, or a cool draft. Workers say they leave the manhole cover open for a while then, or sometimes light a matchstick to check for methane presence, but it doesn’t always help.
“Mechanised cleaning costs ͈2,000 an hour, workers ͈300 a day. So authorities don’t use machines. Often lanes are too narrow for machines to enter” says Parveen, a worker.