Death Holes

Five men have died after they were ordered to clean a septic tank in an upmarket housing complex in Delhi without any safety equipment or training. 

The deaths have prompted public outrage. Cases involving latrine and sewer workers are especially politically charged in India because traditionally members of lower castes were forced to carry out such tasks that were considered unacceptable to other castes.

In 2013, a law was issued which banned employing people (frequently referred to as scavengers) to clean human solid waste by hand - work that was described in the law as “dehumanising” and based on a “highly iniquitous caste system”.

Bezwada Wilson, from the Sanitation Workers Movement, said 1,800 had died since a Supreme Court ruling in 2014 condemned the lack of enforcement of the law protecting workers.

"Those in power are not taking these events seriously," Wilson explained

Delhi is among the worst continued offenders in a country where, experts estimate, some 40 people a month die while cleaning out sewers and septic tanks by hand.

The increase in the number of manual scavengers comes despite the fact that the practice has repeatedly been outlawed – first in 1993 by an act titled The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 passed by the parliament of India. Two decades later, the parliament of India replaced the act with a far more stringent act titled The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013. The Supreme Court of India too has repeatedly outlawed manual scavenging and ordered the Union government as well as all state governments to enforce the provisions of the 2013 Act strictly. It did so most comprehensively in its order in Safai Karamchari Andolan and Ors. Vs. Union of India (UOI) and Ors. Case (citation: 2014(4) SCALE165). In this order, the Court did not merely outlaw the already outlawed inhuman practice but also ordered the states to put an immediate end to the same while categorically expanding the definition of manual scavenging as to deny the authorities the loopholes they often manipulated to keep sewer workers and septic tank cleaners out of the manual scavenging list.  It brought everyone who cleaned dry latrines (the toilets without flushing needing manual removal of excreta), brought sewer workers and the septic tank cleaners under the ambit of the act and fixed command responsibility for implementation of the law with the chief executive officer (or equivalent authority) of the local civic body. It also ordered immediate rehabilitation of those found engaged in the practice and fixed compensation for the manual scavengers who lost their lives doing the dirty work.

 Human Rights Watch in 2014 documented cases in which government village councils and municipalities have engaged in caste-based recruitment to clean open defecation areas. Those who do this work also suffer discrimination in other facets of their lives, including access to education, to community water sources, and to government housing and employment benefits. Human Rights Watch found that the police and other authorities fail to act on complaints by manual scavengers who have been threatened with violence, eviction, and other offenses.

People work as manual scavengers because their caste is expected to fulfill this role, and are typically unable to get any other work. This practice is considered one of the worst surviving symbols of untouchability because it reinforces the social stigma that these castes are untouchable and perpetuates discrimination and social exclusion.

The workers are affected by cardiovascular degeneration, infections like hepatitis and leptospirosis, skin problems, a prevalence of helicobacter, respiratory system problems, and altered pulmonary function parameters. They may also be prone to psychological disorder. They are exposed to infections by hand-to-mouth contact. The manual scavengers are also highly affected by gastric cancer.

The Protectors Of Humanity

Deep into the pit
Surrounding dark sewage and dirt
With nauseated stench
And
Whole body drench
With human urination
And defecation
Manual scavengers clean
Risking lives
Leaving family bonds

Sitting in cozy toilets
And air-conditioned rooms
Pass our wastage
Into long winding drainage

We talk of technology
Development and ecology
But
With their bare hands, legs and misery
And no help of machinery
Work hard for their living
Dreaming of their families blossoming
We lack sympathy and sensitivity
For the protectors of humanity

(In memory of safai karmacharis who lost their lives in cleaning septic tanks)

Sheshu Babu is a writer from anywhere and everywhere