Photos| Down Under: Sewer workers in Delhi battle deplorable work conditions
Updated On Oct 03, 2017 06:02 PM IST
While the Supreme Court has criminalised entering sewers without safety gear even in emergency situations, the working environment for these sewer workers remains sordid. Ten sewer workers in Delhi have died in a little over a month owing to exposure to toxic gases in sewers they were cleaning.
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Updated on Oct 03, 2017 06:02 PM IST
Ten sewer workers in Delhi have died in a little over a month owing to exposure to toxic gases in sewers they were cleaning. Death of workers in sewers is not new. It was also reported from Mumbai and Bengaluru earlier this year. A look at the daily challenges faced by these workers. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Sewer workers in India not only work in deplorable conditions, but also use basic equipment such as metal scrapers, brooms or even their bare hands to clear drainage and sanitation lines. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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25-year-old Vikas, strips down and lowers himself into a sewer full of silt. Soon he is up to his chest in black muck. He fills a pail with the silt, which his co-workers pull out with the help of the rope attached to it, and empty it, before sending it back to him. The stench is overpowering, even for someone standing near. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Skin injuries are not uncommon. ‘Often there are snakes inside if the manhole cover has been left open. The authorities don’t even pay for treatment, unless it is something major that requires hospitalisation,’ says Ratendra Singh, Vikas’s supervisor. ‘The most dangerous gases that are commonly present in the sewers are methane, carbon monoxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide’ says Dunu Roy of Hazards Centre. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Daily breaks from work are far and few in between for the sewer workers on contract. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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The stench that a sewer worker has to live with is unimaginable. Some workers disclose that even whey they eat their dinner at home, their hands smell of the sewers. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Most workers will walk it to work or travel on a cycle. The minimum wages are so low that it affords them no dignity of a standard of living. Workers say they depend on private odd jobs to get by. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Most workers come to work and leave together, with the tools of their trade often hanging behind their cycles or bikes as they make their way back home. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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‘I have been doing this work for 11 years now, but I am still scared every time I go down. You never know what you will find inside the sewer and what state you will come out in’, says 25-year-old Vikas. ‘My back is covered with rashes and black patches from working in sewers for 14 years. But on an earning of ₹7,000 a month, I can’t afford to go to a doctor for skin ailments’, says 40-year-old Rajesh Kumar. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Down under is not without its own job hazards. Workers say they get no medical allowance, only a little soap and water to wash off the muck. ‘Safety gear such as gloves or boots or gas masks are not given either,’ says Ajay. Many workers say at times they don’t even have a safety belt and just tie a rope around their waist and go down. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Bezwada Wilson of the Safai Karmachari Andolan also says that sewer workers should not enter sewers. ‘Sewer workers are also manual scavengers, since much of what they clean is human excreta. There is a ban on human scavenging. So for us it’s not about safety gear or proper payment. We just don’t want them to go down and clean sewers manually,’ he says. (Ravi Choudhary / HT Photo)
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Updated on Oct 03, 2017 06:02 PM IST