New Delhi: While the motto of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan has widely been promoted at all levels, the evil of manual scavenging is still ruling the roost. Four sanitation workers died of asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank in South Delhi’s Ghitorni area near Vasant Kunj on Saturday.
The four sanitation workers who died have been identified as Swarn Singh (45), Dipu (28), Anil (23), and Balwinder (32). They were rushed to the hospital where they were declared brought dead. A fifth victim, Jaspal, deceased Swarn Singh’s son, is currently undergoing treatment at Fortis Hospital. All five are residents of Ambedkar Colony in Chhattarpur.
The incident took place on Saturday morning at around 10.43 am. According to police, five sanitation workers had gone to clean a septic tank in a house when the incident took place. A case has been filed against J.K. Mehta, the owner of the house.
The men entered the septic tank but did not come out for hours. Four of them died after inhaling toxic gases.
A call was made to the police control room and the caller said that the five men cleaning the tank had not come out in a long time. Immediately, a rescue team was rushed to the spot. In an hour-long operation, fire personnel pulled out the five men said to be in an unconscious state. It is suspected that they inhaled toxic gases inside the tank.
Three of them were taken to Fortis Hospital, while the other two were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre and Safdarjung Hospital respectively.
Condemning the practice and blaming the state government for not adhering to the safety and security of workers, the Workers Unit Centre of India (WUCI) condemned the role of the Delhi administration in relation to the death of the four sanitation workers.
“It is to be noted that the sanitation workers are not provided safety gears despite the dangerous nature of their work, which at times claims their lives. In this case too, the sanitation workers had descended into a septic tank in order to unclog it when they lost consciousness due to the toxic gases inside. They were later pulled out of the tank, but could not regain consciousness.
“It should be known that majority of the sanitation workers in Delhi are unregularised and therefore are compelled to work for highly exploitative wages,” said WUCI.
