On the morning of 31st May two laborers lost their lives while cleaning sewerage in Beur locality of Bihar’s capital, Patna. The news of the deaths was carried out by newspapers the next morning (1st June). The nonstop loss of lives due to manual scavenging prompted Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM), New Delhi and Loktantrik Jan Pahal Bihar to jointly constitute a fact finding team to reach at the bottom of the matter.
Cleaning workers facing multiple challenges
The problem of cleaning laborers has only grown with the rapid urbanisation. As in the case of Patna, work is under progress in the city to convert all major drainages and nala into an underground sewerage system. This is to carry the sewerage to nearby water treatment plants in order to save the nearby rivers from getting polluted from the untreated filth of the city. The above mentioned deaths took place on a site associated with the Namami Ganga project.
However, it has been observed that drainage pipes get choked due to inefficient garbage management, causing frequent trouble in the sewerage system. In late 2019 when the southern and western part of Patna was facing unprecedented water logging, multiple reports had suggested that concerned authorities do not have the map of the existing sewerage system of the city. Under such circumstances the job of cleaning workers becomes hell.
One of the reasons for lack of concern towards the plights of cleaning workers is that they belong to the scheduled or other backward castes. It has been observed in many cases that authorities and officers show scant consideration for the lives of these workers. They are forced to get down into the pits and manholes without any protective gears and safety precautions.
It is common knowledge that these underground chambers generally contain life threatening gases such as carbon monoxide and methane which reduces the content of oxygen in the surrounding, creating a deadly atmosphere for manual scavengers who work in the pit and underground sewerage chambers.
The Law Against Manual Scavenging
The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 enlists laws which gave a light of hope for making the lives of cleaning workers better. Chapter 3 (7) of the Act states: “No person local authority or any agency shall from such dates as the state government may notify, which shall not be later than one year from the date of commencement of this act engage or employ, either directly or indirectly, any person for Hazardous Cleaning of sewer or a septic tank.”
Ground Investigation
The place of incident falls in the Beur locality of Ward number 14 of Patna Municipal Corporation, 1 Km south of the Beur Police station and around 200 meter north from the Beur Adarsh Jail.The fact finding team has discussed the incident with people sitting near a salon located just opposite of the sewerage chamber where the incident took place. One of them said that more than half a dozen laborers were present when the chamber was initially being opened.
However, the investigation of the fact finding team got a breakthrough when it met 38 years old Dhurv Kumar Thakur, a community activist who was not only present on the spot but played a crucial role in taking laborers out. The police, contract workers and a large number of locals were present on the incident spot by that time. An altruist from nature Dhurv, got down in the pit to tie the rope in the bodies of the victims when everyone present there, including the fellow laborers refused to do so. The fact finding team accessed a number of small video clips of the rescue operation which corroborated with Dhurv statement.
Interaction with the Police
The members of the fact finding team visited the Beur Police station and met the station in charge who is a DSP rank trainee officer. He listened to the queries of the fact finding team attentively and gave responses.
However the fact finding team found many discrepancies in his versions such as he claimed that ‘we’ rescued the laborers and took them to AIIMS, but when denied admission we went to PMCH where they died during treatment. It is in total contrast with our findings that the laborers died inside the pit and their bodies were recovered forty minutes later with the efforts of Dhurv who was supported by administration and locals.
What creates suspicion is that just after fifteen minutes of recovery of the bodies the police leveled the incident spot leaving little scope for further investigation.
The Company which is working on the mentioned NAMAMI GANGA project (where the accident took place) is aware that the work is potentially dangerous, even deadly4. Thus, it is mandatory to provide safety gear and emergency equipment for such jobs. However, the company and contractors knowingly put the lives of laborers in extreme danger by not taking required necessary action.
Forcing laborers into manholes without adequate safety measures in place is enough circumstantial evidence to lodge an FIR. On the basis of circumstantial evidence, the fact finding team is of the view that the company and the contractor is directly responsible for the deaths of laborers. Therefore, this is a case of cognizable offence; police should have taken cognizance and lodge an FIR against the company and the contractor.
Yet, the police knowingly lodge a case UD FIR (15/21) which is contrary to the Supreme Court ruling that if someone died due to working in sewerage, it is a killing. Therefore, to consider this incident as Non-cognizable offence and lodging UD FIR is totally against the law. As the laborers were outsiders there was no local pressure which gave police a free hand to make the case as light as possible in the favor of the company.
Thus, the fact finding team reached the conclusion that police is working at the behest of the company and contractor. What is striking in the case is that traditionally the workers belonging to the low castes, especially scheduled castes used to perform manual scavenging; however, in this incident the two workers who died belonged to the minority muslim community.
The case is real test for the justice system as the victims are from a minority community