No data, no compensation record: Injured sewer workers slip through legislative and legal cracks

ON a cold February morning in 2020, Sanjay, a sanitation’ worker, in his forties, from Delhi's Seemapuri, was called ina hurry by a local contractor. A political rally was scheduled nearby, and “the sewer was overflowing”.

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He was promised Rs 300. “It was urgent and the money was good, so we went,” Sanjay said.

Three men climbed down that day, but only one made it out alive.

Inside the narrow pit, thick with the stench of toxic gases, Sanjay's co-work-ers fell unconscious within minutes.

“Then they pushed me to go inside and check,” Sanjay said.

He remembers nothing after that but only waking up, 13 days later, in a hospital bed with tubes running through his nose and throat.