Delhi Sewers Have Choked 9 Workers in One Month, but Does the Government Care?

“Budha maa baap ko kaun palega? Woh hi toh humara shara tha … Yeh log humlogon ko barbaad kar ke chhod diye [ Who will look after their old parents? They were our only support … They have ruined us],” says Kaiser Jahan is a loss of words, as she cannot believe that both her sons have been claimed by the sewers of Delhi.

According to Jahan, Izaz, 28 and Jahangir, 25, her two sons had been working at the Aggarwal Funcity Mall as rag pickers. The two men and their father were allegedly pressurised by the manager of the mall to enter the sewers of Vishwas Nagar, Shahdara and clean them. While the both the boys died gasping for lack of oxygen in the drains, their father, Yusuf, is still remains admitted in the ICU ward at Dr. Hedgewar Aarogya Sansthan. He would also have died, had the security staff and the fire department personnel not brought him up from the sewer pit in time, said Kaiser Jahan.

The death of the two brothers have taken the official death toll to nine workers in span of one month, who have died in the drains Delhi due to suffocation.

Manhar Valjibhai Zala, the Chairperson of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, visited the Hospital to meet Yusuf. After meeting the victim, Zala spoke to Newsclick and said that the Commission would recommend the Delhi government to take strict action against the officers who were responsible for monitoring the safety of the municipal workers. He also stated that they have written to all the states in the Union territory, to strictly implement ‘The Prohibition Of Employment As Manual Scavengers And Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013’.

Sanitation workers are getting killed in the drains all over the country and the states have been miserably failing to prevent these deaths. The Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) issued a statement stating that “Despite the laws, no prosecutions and no punishment has been awarded to any person so far, either for sending people into the sewer lines and septic tanks or for the causing 1470 deaths in the country. These deaths amount to conscious killings.”

Bezwada Wilson, the National Convener of SKA wrote to the Chief Minister of Delhi,  Arvind Kejriwal asking him to “Stop Killing Us” in sewer and septic tanks. He said, cases must also be filed against the officers and the people responsible for these deaths under ‘The Scheduled Castes And The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015’.

The government should strictly have guidelines on the lines of the “National Building Code Of India (Fire & Life safety)” to prevent further deaths in the sewers. The fire department can inspect and audit the buildings on preparedness for sewer cleaning - with the available machinery and equipment.  It can be clubbed with the exercises that the department does annually, to take stock of the fire safety equipment each establishment and office maintains.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.