Last Saturday, Marayamuttom Joy, a Keralite daily wager, went missing in a sewer connected to the railway station in Kerala's capital city Thiruvananthapuram. His mortal remains were found on Monday in a different part of the river connected to the sewer.
Fire and rescue personnel, disaster management rescue forces, and the Indian Navy were pressed into service, along with robots and other equipment, to find Joy. Unfortunately, the rescue operations faced obstacles because the river (Amaizhnjaan Thodu) connected to the railway sewer was clogged with decades-old garbage from Thiruvananthapuram city and railway station.
Finally, about 46 hours after Joy went missing, his body was found in a part of the river that carries tonnes of garbage.
This is not the first sewer death in Kerala in 2024. In May, Renish, 43, and Ashokan, 56, from Kinalur, choked to death while cleaning the sewage tank of a restaurant in the city of Kozhikode.
Similar tragedies have occurred in Kerala in the past, forcing authorities to acknowledge the existence of manual scavengers. On November 26, 2015, two workers from Andhra Pradesh lost their lives in a manhole in the heart of the city. An auto-rickshaw driver, who was trying to rescue one of the workers, also died.
Manual scavenging is banned in India through the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. However, it still exists, and deaths due to the same continue to be recorded. According to a parliamentary document presented in February, between January 2021 and January 2024, 33 people were killed while employed in cleaning sewers and septic tanks in Maharashtra.
The Act defines a "manual scavenger" as a person engaged or employed, at the commencement of the Act or at any time thereafter, by an individual, a local authority, an agency, or a contractor, for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling human excreta in an insanitary latrine, open drain, or pit where human excreta from insanitary latrines is disposed of, on a railway track, or in other spaces or premises as notified by the central or state government. This applies before the excreta has fully decomposed, as prescribed by regulations. The term "manual scavenging" is to be understood accordingly.
Additionally, the Act defines “hazardous cleaning” of a sewer or septic tank by an employee as the manual cleaning of these facilities without the employer fulfilling their obligations to provide protective gear, and cleaning devices, and ensure adherence to safety precautions as prescribed by law or rules in force.
In Joy’s case, he was pressed into hazardous cleaning and reportedly wasn’t given any safety gear.
Section 7 of the Act clearly says that “no person, local authority or any agency shall… engage or employ, either directly or indirectly, any person for hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank.”
The Act adds that “whoever contravenes the provisions of Section 7 shall for the first contravention be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to 200,000 rupees or with both, and for any subsequent contravention with imprisonment which may extend to five years or with fine which may extend to 500,000 rupees, or with both.”
Despite this Act being in place, between 2018 and November 2023, 443 manual scavengers were reported killed, according to a document from the Indian Parliament in December. The same document also states that a 2018 survey found 44,217 manual scavengers in India.
So, why do manual scavengers exist and why do sewer deaths happen in India?
With my decade-long experience in reporting on issues of manual scavenging in South India, I've found that these practices persist due to two main reasons: caste discrimination, failure to provide safety gear, and the government's failure to effectively implement the law.
Unfortunately, lower-caste Indians, particularly from Dalit communities, are often engaged in manual scavenging and sewer cleaning. This is happening despite an amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which makes it a punishable offence to employ anyone from these communities, particularly as manual scavengers. Despite performing these essential but degrading tasks, these daily wagers from Dalit communities receive inadequate support from both central and state governments to improve their dire situation.
In Kerala, members of the Chakliyan community have been working as manual scavengers for centuries. Chakliyans, who were also called the ‘Arunthathiyar’ in Tamil Nadu, were brought from the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border as slaves. Later, when municipalities were formed in Kerala in the 1920s, these workers were forcefully employed as manual scavengers. Unfortunately, many among them are not included in the scheduled caste or tribe categories, and their upcoming generations struggle to access educational support without reservation benefits.
Another reason behind these tragedies is the failure of employers or contractors to provide safety gear for workers. As previously mentioned in Joy's case, he was tasked with hazardous cleaning and reportedly was not provided any safety equipment.
The third reason manual scavenging persists and tragic deaths occur is due to the failure of both central and state governments to strictly implement the Act. Despite the existence of the Act, employers—whether officials or agencies of the central or state government—are often not penalized when they hire daily wage workers or when tragic deaths happen.
When media attention fades after such tragedies, officials who could be held responsible for these deaths often evade accountability and move on. Furthermore, the victims, who are predominantly from marginalized communities, find their voices unheard.
Joy was a daily wage worker who had left behind an elderly single mother, who may struggle to find justice. During the search operations, there was a blame game between the Indian Railway and Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, each trying to evade responsibility. Today, as his body is laid to rest and the media moves on to other issues, Joy's death will likely fade from public memory.
(Rejimon Kuttappan is an independent journalist, labour migration specialist and author of Undocumented [Penguin 2021]. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)