Over 90% of sewer-related deaths in India (2022–23) occurred without the use of any safety gear, reflecting a grim failure of institutional safeguards and persistent hazardous manual cleaning practices despite legal bans on manual scavenging.
Relevance : GS 2(Social Justice)
Data Snapshot: Scale of the Problem
| Metric | Value |
| Total hazardous cleaning deaths analysed | 54 deaths |
| Time Period Covered | 2022–2023 |
| Districts Covered | 17 districts |
| States/UTs Covered | 8 |
| Total deaths (govt. data) | 150 deaths |
| Deaths without any safety gear | 49 out of 54 (90.7%) |
| Deaths with minimal PPE (gloves/gumboots) | 5 cases |
| Deaths where mechanical cleaning gear was used | 2 cases only |
| Deaths with safety training prior to work | 1 case only |
| Consent not taken before work | 27 cases |
| Consent taken but without counselling | 18 cases |
Structural & Legal Context
Legal Provisions
- Manual Scavenging is outlawed under:
- Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013
- Hazardous cleaning without safety gear is illegal under:
- Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Rules, 2013
- The MS Rules, 2013 require:
- Protective equipment
- Mechanised tools
- Safety training
- Consent and risk communication
Institutional Lapses: Social Audit Insights
1. PPE Availability & Equipment Readiness
- In 47 of 54 deaths, no mechanized equipment or safety gear was available.
- Only two instances reported presence of safety equipment.
- Only one case showed safety training was provided.
- In 45 cases, concerned agencies had no equipment readiness.
Reflects administrative negligence and token compliance with safety norms.
2. Consent & Worker Awareness
- No consent in 27 cases.
- In 18 cases where written consent was taken, no counselling on risks was provided.
- Indicates uninformed and coerced participation in hazardous work.
3. Hiring Patterns: Exploitative Structures
| Hiring Type | No. of Cases |
| Personally/Individually contracted | 38 |
| Government agency employed | 5 |
| Public Sector Unit but subcontracted to private | 3 |
Shows rampant outsourcing and informalisation, diluting accountability.
4. Post-Death Response: Poor Awareness Efforts
- Awareness drives conducted only in 7 deaths (Chennai, Kancheepuram, Satara).
- Indicates reactive rather than preventive approach by authorities.
Policy Update: The NAMASTE Scheme (2023)
Objective:
Eliminate hazardous sewer/septic tank cleaning and ensure dignity and safety for sanitation workers.
Progress (as of July 2025):
| Metric | Value |
| Workers identified under NAMASTE | 84,902 |
| States/UTs covered | 36 |
| Provided with PPE kits/safety gear | ~42,000 (just over 50%) |
Positive start but coverage is still halfway, training and mechanisation lag behind.
Declarations vs. Ground Reality
- Govt. claim: Manual scavenging is eliminated.
- Reality: The same deaths due to manual cleaning of sewers without safety gear indicate persistence of de facto manual scavenging.
- Mismatch between legal abolition and lived experiences.
Recommendations
Legal & Administrative Reforms
- Enforce penal liability on contractors and officials under the MS Rules, 2013.
- Mandate third-party safety audits of all urban local bodies.
Institutional Accountability
- Make mechanisation mandatory across all ULBs (urban local bodies).
- Maintain publicly accessible real-time dashboards for death tracking and equipment readiness.
Worker-Centric Reforms
- Ensure full coverage of PPE kits + training under NAMASTE by 2026.
- Provide life insurance, health cover, and legal aid to families of victims.
Broader Implications
- Social Justice Deficit: Marginalised communities, especially Dalits, continue to bear the brunt of sewer deaths.
- Policy-Implementation Gap: Repeated declarations of ending manual scavenging ring hollow unless backed by institutional transformation and mechanisation.
- India’s Urban Shame: In a Smart Cities and Swachh Bharat era, manual sewer deaths are a stark contradiction to urban development claims.
Conclusion
Despite strong laws and public schemes like NAMASTE, manual sewer cleaning remains deadly due to:
- Institutional apathy
- Informalisation of labour
- Weak enforcement of safety protocols
- Poor state capacity in local bodies
The way forward lies not just in legal bans, but in mechanisation, accountability, and dignity for sanitation workers. Until then, the phrase “manual scavenging has been eliminated” will remain a bureaucratic illusion.
