No safety gear & machines: Footage shows manual scavenging

Gurgaon: A video shared by residents of Ashok Vihar 3 has renewed concerns over manual scavenging in the city, with footage showing a sanitation worker cleaning a blocked sewer without safety gear. The sewerman is seen desilting the blocked manhole using a bucket while another worker was assisting him.

No gas detector, oxygen cylinder, safety harness, PPE or mechanised equipment was visible at the site — renewing concerns over hazardous sewer-cleaning practices despite repeated govt assertions that urban local bodies have shifted entirely to mechanised methods.

The incident comes to light a day after two workers suffocated to death after falling into a tank at a municipal sewage treatment plant in Faridabad’s Jeevan Nagar as their safety belt snapped.

Following the video’s circulation on social media, MCG issued a notice to the private agency engaged for desilting work in the area. An inspection confirmed that cleaning was being carried out without mandatory safety equipment, and the notice termed the lapse a “serious violation” of safety norms and contract conditions.

The agency was directed to ensure the immediate availability and use of all required gear at the site, and warned that any accident resulting from non-compliance would be its sole responsibility. Further lapses, the notice stated, would invite action under contract provisions.

“Clause 19 of the general conditions of the contract clearly states that the firm must provide safety gear to workers. In case of non-compliance, the agency is held fully responsible. We have issued a notice and action will be taken as per contract guidelines,” said an MCG engineer.

Residents said the blockage problem in the area was longstanding and had been flagged with the civic body on multiple occasions.

“The civic body did not inform the residents’ welfare association before sending workers for the desilting operation,” said Vikas Hooda, president of Ashok Vihar Phase 3 RWA.

In the Faridabad incident, the victims were not wearing the harness properly, and the rope was loosely strung around them, workers had said. The two were also not provided with oxygen masks, helmets, boots or gloves.

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, prohibits hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. Entry into a sewer or septic tank is permitted only in exceptional circumstances and after following prescribed safety protocols. Employers must first attempt mechanical cleaning and, if human entry is unavoidable, provide protective equipment such as harnesses, helmets, gloves, boots and full-body protective suits. The law also mandates compensation in sewer-death cases, but no such announcements have been made as yet.