NHRC Notices to the Governments of Haryana & Gujarat over the reported deaths of 7 sanitation workers in two different incidents in Jhajjar & Bharuch Districts

New Delhi 06th April, 2023

The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India has taken suo moto cognizance of media reports about the deaths of 7 sanitation workers in two different incidents in Jhajjar & Bharuch Districts of Haryana and Gujarat respectively on 4th April, 2023. It has issued notices to the State Governments through their Chief Secretaries and DGPs calling for reports into the incidents within 6 weeks. Reportedly, the workers were not provided with safety gear in both incidents.

Issuing the notices, the Commission has observed that the contents of the media reports indicate negligence of the concerned authorities resulting in the violation of the victims' right to life. Just because the incident has occurred on private property, this cannot allow the authorities concerned to get rid of their responsibility of supervising such hazardous activities being conducted under their jurisdiction.

State governments' reports must inform the action taken against the erring public servants and the status of relief and rehabilitation provided to the aggrieved families. These must also contain steps taken or proposed to be taken to spread awareness and to sensitize the public at large towards zero tolerance of death of sanitary workers, be it in public or private work, by displaying or portraying the penal consequences of such employment in hazardous cleaning without following the due procedure mentioned in The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers & Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 as well as in the NHRC Advisory on Protection of Human Rights of the person engaged in Manual Scavenging or Hazardous Cleaning on 24.09.2021.

The Commission has further observed that such tragic incidents are being reported from several parts of the Country in spite of specific judgments given by the Supreme Court and guidelines issued from time to time by different government agencies as well as the NHRC Advisory to all the concerned authorities in the State, Union Territories and the Union Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The sewage workers are still being exposed to extreme danger and being subjected to indignity by the public authorities.

According to media reports, carried out on 5th April, 2023, 4 persons died in Bahadurgarh area of Jhajjar, Haryana while fitting pipes inside a septic tank of private property. In the other incident, 3 persons died while cleaning a drainage line in Bharuch district of Gujarat.

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