Thousands of Dalit community men are contracted by local municipal and corporation bodies across India, mostly in its growing cities, for clearing soak pits, manholes and sewer-pipes with their bare hands by entering the sewage system without any safety gear.

Though the reports of death due to asphyxiation are not rare, and hit the city news pages often, yet the practice continues. The latest incident is a case in point. But there are no exact figures available on how many have died inside the sewer systems.

There have been demands and petitions to outlaw this practice under the same law that bans manual scavenging, the practice of carrying human excreta or night soil from dry latrines. The fact is that the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, itself has failed to effectively address the practice which is linked to India’s caste system and social stigma.

Hearing a public interest petition the Madras High Court on November 20, 2008, ordered that the “entry of sanitary workers into the sewerage system under the guise of removing the blocks should be prohibited.”
The High Court, in its interim order of October 13, also made it clear that no human being should be allowed to get into drainage/sewerage lines to clear any block and “it is the responsibility of the authorities to get it cleared by employing mechanical devices”.

The court also directed the government pleader to file a detailed affidavit indicating the number of deaths and the number of cases in which compensation had been paid. The issue is integrally linked with the issue of social justice and inability of the state to provide economic and employment rights of Dalits and marginalised.