On 6 February 2021, In Chennai, A worker died following a cave-in while working underground to lay drainage pipelines for a Metrowater project in Tambaram. Another worker, who was ambushed in an underwater hole, was saved by local inhabitants and staff from the fire and rescue services.
But on the other side, many under ground drainage workers died every year in India when they are working underground pipelines. After that, a question arises “What is the reason behind the death of Sanitation workers? Where they come from? Who play the most important role in our society?”
The answer is they clean our surroundings, to protect other people from dangerous diseases.
During the time of lockdown while other citizens of India who live in their homes for stoping the spread of the coronavirus, they were working in this type of critical condition on the front line.
According to one report, in the last five years before 31-12-2020, the number of deaths stood at 340 over 19 States, as presented by the Centre, where Uttar Pradesh on the top of the list with 52 deaths. On the other hand, usually, they are appointed by the government under the Municipal Corporation but sometime contractors are hired workers on a contract basis because the workers are mostly from Dalit’s and they work without any experience. Due to this reason, they lose their life in the sewerage.
During the time of talk with the employee of Municipal Corporation, who are not exposed due to the same safety reasons, said that commonly the sewer cleaner who works under the private contractor are migrant Dalit’s and they do this type of risky job because they are helpless for the need of money to run their family’s expenses so they start work without any experience and safety equipment.
In 2011, The Supreme Court of India held that the government could not release itself from this responsibility to put in place an effective mechanism for securing the safety of the workers used for managing and cleaning the Under Ground Sewerage System. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act of 2013 was succeeding declared, designed to help many of the lacks of past law. One important change in this Act is its focus on improving the working situations of sewage workers.
So policy measures and legal reforms come after years of effort and yet, working situations remain uncertain. The insight of our research is that the failure of regulation in this area is no accident or a mere difficulty of implementation, but should be agreed with the larger landscape of labour market changes and labour law in India.
