Manual scavenger dies in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur while cleaning sewer

Chennai: On Thursday, a manual scavenger died after inhaling toxic fumes in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur city. The victim was one of a group of men who entered a sewer to clean it. Going by the most recent reports, the police are yet to ascertain whether the man was tasked with cleaning the sewer by a contractor. This is the second manual scavenging-related death in Tamil Nadu just this week. 

Several men entered the sewer to clean it on Thursday. However, they fled the spot as soon as the victim collapsed after inhaling toxic fumes. Bystanders reportedly spotted the victim and alerted authorities. Some claim that it took fire services for as long as two hours to arrive. By this time, the victim had succumbed. More details are awaited as this is a developing story.

Earlier this week, a man died while cleaning a septic tank at a mall in the state capital of Chennai. Identified as Arvind Kumar, the victim had entered the septic tank after his brother fell to the ground while cleaning it. Kumar went inside to rescue his brother but died after inhaling toxic fumes. A police case was filed against the contractor who paid Kumar and his brother ₹600 for the job.

In both these cases, the labourers tasked with cleaning the sewer or septic tank were not provided any safety gear or proper equipment. Basic gear such as gas masks which are a mandatory measure for manual scavengers could have saved these lives, claim their family members. A similar incident was reported from a village in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri where two men died after inhaling poisonous gases while cleaning a septic tank on Friday. A local police officer told media outlets that the victims, Collector Singh alias Kadar and Dharmendra Yadav went inside the septic tank that was being reconstructed at the house of one Wakeel Yadav. While Kadar was a manual scavenger, Dharmendra was Wakeel's brother. 

Data released by the central government earlier this year states that Tamil Nadu tops the list of states with the most number of manual scavenging-related deaths. A total of 144 people have died while cleaning septic tanks and sewers in the state since 1993. With 131, Gujarat falls at the second spot followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh with 75 deaths each and Haryana with 51. These numbers, however, do not take into account deaths that are never reported.