Manual Scavenging: Lives choked in dirty drains

Preeti Kumari’s world came crashing down when two policemen came to her house on Sunday morning and informed her about her husband’s death. The 21-year-o ld is now staring at an uncertain future, with two children, including a three-month-old daughter, to raise.

Her husband Mohan, 25, was among three contractual sanitation workers who died as poisonous gases choked them inside a sewer they were cleaning in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area. “He lost his life for just Rs 300... he had not been provided with even a mask,” she says while fixing her white veil with her henna-dyed hands.

“He used to tell me that all they got him was a rope, a stick and a basket to do his job. He never mentioned about gloves, masks or boots,” Preeti says. “He never told me much about his work. He used to avoid any discussion around how he did what he did,” she says. 

The families of the two other victims were also not aware about the nature of their jobs and the working conditions. “He would often tell me that he was employed with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) as a safai karamchari. It was only after his death that I came to know how hard he used to work to earn a living,” says an inconsolable Rekha Kumari, wife of another victim, Annu (29).

Annu’s brother, who works at the Aligarh Muslim University as a cleaner, however, understands the reason behind his brother’s ‘mysterious’ work life. “Do you think his 5-year-old son would have liked to know that his father used to pull out rubbish and excreta from drains?” he asks.

Despite the government’s ban on manual scavenging in India, around 250 sanitation workers, employed with Delhi’s three municipal corporations and the DJB, do the dirty, inhuman and risky job. 

Most manual scavengers are employed officially to clean silt from small drains, but are regularly made to enter and clean sewers because of ‘emergency’. “There are strict laws against the practice, but there is always a demand for manual scavengers and there are people available (willingly or otherwise) to do the job,” says a sanitation worker employed with the DJB that manages the city’s water supplies and sewage.

Recently, the Delhi High Court pulled up the Delhi government, asking what steps it has taken to eliminate the “evil practice”.

(Preeti Kumari (in white) with her late husband Mohan’s photograph outside her makeshift jhuggi in East Delhi’s Kalyanpuri —BB Yadav/DNA)

No safety gear

It takes five-six hours for 35-year-old Sunil Kumar of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to clear filth from a drain. “We do not get any safety gear. No masks, no gloves or boots. Sometimes the silt contains pieces of glass,” he says, showing a deep gash on his palm.

“All we get is a bamboo stick tied to a basket, and a ladder to go deep into drains. The smell is unbearable,” he says.

According to the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the entry of humans into drains and tanks to clear them of waste is prohibited, except in an emergency. Under the latter case, the law directs the employer to provide safety gear to workers. “We should at least get masks for emergency,” says Joginder Kumar, a sewer cleaner employed with the DJB. 

“And even if there are boots or gloves, they are either small or oversized. If they will give you knee-length boots, how are you supposed to work wearing them? We eventually will prefer working without them,” he says.

Officials, however, deny the charges, saying their sewer stores are full of safety gear that are always provided to sanitary workers. “We don’t allow our sanitary workers to enter manholes and drains. Everything is mechanised now. Only in unavoidable situations, they are asked to enter drains and that too with all safety gear,” a senior DJB official says.

Officials at the EDMC, however, say that a lack of funds means no safety gear to sanitation workers. “How can we give them proactive gear when we don’t have funds to give them salaries on time?” asks a senior EDMC official.

“Even if we provide them with masks and gloves, sewer cleaners don’t use them as they are not used to working with them,” he says.

The three corporations — East, South and North — have around 2,500 sewer cleaners. The corporation pays Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 to its permanent workers even as no health benefits are given to them. The law, however, mandates the use of machinery to clean drains, sewers and tanks. The civic bodies hire cheap manual labour through contractors and they are paid Rs 250-Rs 300 a day.

Most workers enter sewers after consuming alcohol or cheap intoxicated substances to keep themselves distracted. “It’s so difficult to stand the unbearable stench down there. Alcohol helps us carry on,” says EDMC worker Jagdish Kumar.  

This makes life even more dangerous. “Under the influence of alcohol, they can’t react promptly during an emergency,” says Mukesh Vaidya, president of All Municipal Corporation Sanitation Supervisors’ Union.

Workers also claim that they suffer from problems of heart, lungs, skin and eyes. “I stopped cleaning sewers after repeated infections. My condition had become so bad that I could not step out of my house for months,” says Kallu, 38, a resident of East Delhi’s Kalyanpuri. He now works at a tea stall.

Kallu’s uncle Sushil suffered a heart attack after being choked by poisonous gasses while cleaning a sewer line in 2012. He, however, returned to the practice. “I tried convincing him to start doing something else but he said that he won’t be able to do anything else now,” he says. Kallu is the first in his family to quit the profession.

“We don’t know any other work. From where will we earn our living if we stop working as sewer cleaners,” asks Sushil, a contractual worker.

The health risks are enormous. “Many of my friends in the profession died of tuberculosis before reaching the age of 60,” he says.

Caste curse

Bezwada Wilson, a Magsaysay award winner for his efforts to fight against manual scavenging and the national convener of Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), says, “Sanitation work in India is caste-based work. We talk about Swachh Bharat Abhiyan but does anyone think about those involved to make it work?” “99 per cent of these workers are Valmikis (Dalits) and employers consider it their right to make them clean the filth,” he says.

Echoing the sentiment, Shambhu, 22, who wanted to continue his studies after school, says, “I wanted to do something respectable but since we are Valmikis, we don’t have many choices.” He is working as a sewer cleaner. 

“When I got a job in the Delhi Jal Board in 1995, I thought it would change my life but I ended up cleaning drains,” says Joginder Kumar, adding all Valmikis employed with either DJB or MCDs are working as safai karamcharis and sewer cleaners.

“People from other communities are doing more dignified jobs like those of guards and peons,” he says. DJB officials, however, deny the allegations, saying they don’t hire people based on caste.

Deaths and compensation

According to data compiled by SKA, as many as 81 sanitation workers died in Delhi and NCR due to poisonous gases in drains and sewers. “Out of which, 14 deaths occurred this year itself,” Wilson says.

In 2014, the Supreme Court awarded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of manual scavengers who died while working after 1993. “Only a few families received the amount in Delhi,” he says.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also announced Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the sanitation workers who died on Sunday. “We are banking on the money. I will use it to first rent a proper house for my children,” says Preeti, sitting in her makeshift jhuggi in Kalyanpuri.

Blame game

Whenever such an incident happens, DJB and corporation officials blame contractors. “There is a huge informal sector operating. These contractors risk the lives of sanitation workers for their own profit,” a senior DJB official says. “Sometimes, they even intoxicate workers to make them operate in inhumane conditions,” he says.

The Delhi government’s Public Works Department (PWD), however, claims that it does not have sewers under it. “We maintain some storm-water drains. But because of a poor sewerage system, they have sewage stuck in them. These drains are not too deep, but we make sure contractors use all precautions such as masks and gear. We can take action against contractors for violating safety norms,” says PWD’s chief engineer Sarvagya Srivastava.

126

Sewer deaths (From January 1 to August 6)
States: Delhi, Rajasthan UP, MP, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Punjab, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

14

Of these deaths reported from Delhi, NCR

What is sewer gas?

It is a mixture of toxic gases produced in sewage systems by the decomposition of organic waste. It includes methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and nitrogen dioxide