Lucknow, Sept 19, 2022: Three laborers in their early 20s died after inhaling toxic fumes from unused septic tank in the Uttar Pradesh, the northern Indian state with the largest number of manual scavengers.
The three were cleaning an unused tank without protective gears at the site of an under-construction house at Barra in Kanpur district September 18 when the mishap occurred.
After one worker entered the tank and fell unconscious, another went inside to save him but lost consciousness as well. Finally, the third one entered the tank to save his co-workers but met the same fate — suffocating to death.
They were identified as Amit Kumar, 25, Ankit Pal, 22, and Shiva Tiwari, 25 – all from the same district.
Govind Nagar assistant commissioner of police Vikas Pandey said the three died after inhaling poisonous gases in the tank. He said when the three workers fainted inside the tank, the police were called and they pulled them out with the help of the State Disaster Response Force and Central Industrial Security Force.
They were rushed to a hospital where they were declared brought dead. “The cause of death was apparently asphyxiation and inhalation of poisonous gases,” Pandey told newsclick.
The police official said they would take act against the building owner and contractor. “The accused will be booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and violation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.”
In May, two sanitation workers died of suffocation after entering manholes in separate incidents in the state. Two months later in July, two brothers died after allegedly inhaling toxic gases while cleaning the tank of a sewage treatment plant at Awas Vikas Colony, Kushinagar. The two were forced to clean the tank without any safety equipment.
At least, 347 sanitation workers died in the country in the last five years with the highest number of deaths recorded in Uttar Pradesh, the federal government had informed the Lok Sabha in August.
The federal government also provided data on the year-wise deaths of manual scavengers: the highest number of deaths at 116 was reported in 2019, followed by 92 in 2017.
The data also showed a breakdown of the reported deaths in the states and Union Territories in the last five years with Uttar Pradesh at the top (51), followed by Tamil Nadu (48) and Delhi (44). In 2019, 26 septic tank workers died in Uttar Pradesh, the highest in the country.
Manual scavenging, banned under the 2013 Act, continues with the employment of workers mainly from Dalit subcastes. Further, sanitation workers are often not provided with mandatory safety gear, leading to injuries or death caused by inhalation of toxic fumes.
Source: newsclick.in/3-more-UP-manual-scavengers-dead-inhaling-toxic-fumes
This is the ACHHE DIN promised by Modi. Do you think that Modi-Shah duo and their colleagues bother about the manual scavenging and problems faced by SC and ST communities? NEVER! The pro-corporate BJP is busy with the “swindling of all the wealth of the country”.