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Delhi HC: Manual scavenging continues despite laws banning it
The court was lamenting the death of two people earlier this month after they inhaled toxic gases inside a sewer in the Capital’s Mundka area.
New Delhi The Delhi high court on Tuesday observed that manual scavenging work continues to be performed despite laws banning the practice, as it lamented the death of two people earlier this month after they inhaled toxic gases inside a sewer in the Capital’s Mundka area.
“The matter pertains to the death of a scavenger and despite all the laws, they were forced to do this,” a bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad remarked.
On September 9, a sweeper and a security guard died in outer Delhi’s Mundka after they inhaled toxic gases inside a sewer. When the sweeper had gone down to clean the sewer, he fainted and the guard followed to rescue him and he also fell unconscious, the police had said. The two men were taken to a hospital where they were declared brought dead.
Three days later, the high court had taken suo motu cognizance of the death of the two persons based on a news report and directed that a PIL be registered on the issue.
On Tuesday, following the bench’s observations, the lawyer for Delhi Development Authority (DDA) sought time to seek instructions on the plea, and the court listed the case for further hearing on October 6.
Senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao, the amicus curiae in the case, said that as a high court order in a different case records, between 2012 and 2017, there were over 800 cases of deaths of safai karamcharis in the city.
Delhi government counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi said that a first information report (FIR) has already been registered concerning the incident and “the executing agency should be made liable”.
At the last hearing, the court was informed by the counsel for Delhi Jal Board (DJB) that the area where the incident took place was under DDA and even the sweeper was an employee of DDA.
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