Five Years of Fatal Neglect for Vidarbha’s Sanitation Workers

thenewsdirt
Aug 11
12 min read

In July 2025, a 30-year-old woman working to clear a clogged drain in Nagpur was crushed to death when a dilapidated brick wall collapsed on her.

The incident cast a harsh light on the safety conditions faced by sanitation workers in Vidarbha. Over the past five years, multiple such fatalities have occurred in this region, raising urgent questions about whether existing policies and safeguards are truly protecting those who keep our cities and towns clean.

From workers suffocating in toxic sewers to others killed by preventable accidents, each tragedy points to chronic neglect. This article takes an in-depth look at sanitation worker deaths in Vidarbha since 2020 and examines the apparent gaps in safety measures, policy enforcement, and rehabilitation efforts for these vulnerable workers.

Recurring Fatalities Amid Negligence

These recent years have seen a troubling pattern of sanitation worker deaths across Vidarbha. The fatal accident in Nagpur during the 2025 monsoon was not an isolated case.

In March 2022, three men, two contract labourers and a supervisor, died after inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning a septic tank in Chandrapur district.

They had entered the tank at a Western Coalfields residential colony without any protective gear. Within minutes, the workers lost consciousness in the oxygen-depleted pit. A colleague who attempted to rescue them also collapsed, and by the time help arrived, three lives had been lost. “The accident could have been avoided if the labourers were provided safety equipment,” observed K.K. Singh, a trade union leader, as he condemned the complete lack of precautions at the site.

Local investigations later confirmed that basic gear like gas masks, harnesses, and gloves had not been provided by the private contractor managing the sewage work. The Chandrapur tragedy starkly exposed how routine sanitation tasks can turn deadly in the absence of safety measures.

Nagpur, the largest city in Vidarbha, has witnessed its own share of horrors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sanitation workers in the city toiled in hazardous conditions, disinfecting hospitals, collecting biomedical waste, and even handling the cremation of victims. The toll on these frontline workers was severe.

In Nagpur alone, 54 municipal sanitation workers lost their lives amid the pandemic, many likely due to infection and work-related exposure. The Maharashtra state government had announced a compensation of ₹50 lakh for each bereaved family in recognition of these sacrifices.

Yet, as of early 2025_, nearly three years after the first wave of COVID-19, only two families have received any portion of the promised aid.

The rest (over 50 families in Nagpur) are still waiting in vain. Instead of delivering the full payouts, the government disbursed a token sum of ₹2 crore for the entire state as per a February 2025 resolution, an amount that would make each family’s share only a few lakhs of rupees. In the interim, Nagpur’s municipal corporation stepped in to provide ₹10 lakh per family from its own limited funds as immediate relief.

By March 2025, 32 families of the deceased workers had received these municipal ex gratia payments. However, this is only a fraction of the ₹50 lakh each family was officially assured, and most victims’ dependents remain in financial limbo.

These families typically come from economically weaker communities and lack the resources to mount legal battles for their dues. The result is that even the meagre safety net intended for such tragedies has proven ineffective, compounding the human cost of each death.

Beyond the pandemic, other avoidable disasters have continued to claim lives. Maharashtra has outlawed manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning of sewers, yet enforcement is uneven, a reality not lost on Vidarbha.

Official records show that at least 30 sewer and septic tank workers died across Maharashtra between 2017 and 2021, but only 11 of those victims’ families received compensation from authorities.

Several of these incidents occurred within Vidarbha, according to activists, though the government does not break down the data by region.

In one 2021 case in Amravati (a major city in Vidarbha), local media reported two workers collapsing inside a sewer line, allegedly due to poisonous gas, underscoring that these dangers are not confined to one district.

With no comprehensive public register of sanitation worker injuries or deaths specific to Vidarbha, the full scope of the problem remains obscured. “There is no clarity on how many of these incidents occurred in Vidarbha,” noted one independent report, “but given the prevalence of unmechanised systems, the region cannot be excluded from this trend.” In other words, the grim toll seen statewide is very much a reality in Vidarbha as well, even if it goes underreported.

Safety Laws on Paper vs. Ground Reality

India’s laws ostensibly provide strong protection for sanitation workers, but on the ground in Vidarbha, those protections often exist only on paper.

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, bans the practice of sending humans to clean sewers or septic tanks without protective equipment, and it mandates jail terms and fines for officials or contractors who violate the law. In practice, however, enforcement of this act has been feeble.

There are hardly any instances of employers being prosecuted when a sanitation worker dies on the job, even in cases that clearly involve illegal manual scavenging. In Maharashtra, many urban local bodies have failed to even formally acknowledge the presence of manual scavenging in their jurisdiction. Government audits found that numerous districts, including some in Vidarbha, did not report data on insanitary latrines or declare themselves “manual scavenging free,” as required by law.

This administrative indifference means dangerous practices can continue unchecked without triggering oversight. The disconnect between official claims and ground reality is often glaring. New Delhi has repeatedly asserted that manual scavenging is a thing of the past, eradicated by law.

Yet day-to-day conditions tell a different story. Independent surveys and social audits have documented multiple instances of workers being sent to clean septic tanks without any safety gear, which by definition is manual scavenging under the 2013 Act.

These findings directly contradict the government’s narrative that such work no longer happens. Aslam Sayad, a coordinator with the state’s social audit society, notes that “despite government claims, workers entering septic tanks without protective gear are still effectively engaged in manual scavenging.” He adds that in regions like Vidarbha, where modern sewer infrastructure is lacking, “such practices are likely to continue unchecked.”

His assessment reflects what many frontline workers report anonymously – that they are routinely ordered to perform hazardous cleanings in violation of the law, often under threat of losing their daily-wage jobs if they refuse.

The absence of basic safety precautions is a recurring theme in every incident. The union government-commissioned “Social Audit Report on the Death of Sanitary Workers 2021–24” examined a series of worker fatalities in Maharashtra and flagged “critical failures” by authorities and contractors in protecting these workers.

According to this audit (conducted by the Maharashtra State Social Audit and Transparency Society), none of the surveyed worksites had proper safety protocols in place.

Protective gear, first-aid kits, and emergency rescue equipment were virtually absent in all the cases reviewed. For example, in one of the documented cases, municipal workers had been made to enter a sewer line in a city suburb without gas masks or ventilation support; they were overcome by toxic fumes within minutes.

Several deaths across the state, the audit noted, occurred due to inhalation of poisonous gases in confined sewage spaces. The findings underscore that simply providing gloves, gas detectors, or oxygen tanks could have saved lives, but those measures were missing. “Many of these deaths could have been prevented with proper safety measures, training, and mechanised cleaning systems,” the audit report concluded.

It characterised the 18 sanitation worker deaths it studied (from 2021 to 2024) not as random accidents but as systemic failures stemming from negligence. In case after case, workers had never received any safety training.

One victim wasn’t even told about the deadly gases that can collect in sewers. He collapsed moments after climbing down a maintenance hole. Such testimony sheds light on how ill-prepared these workers often are for the risks they face daily.

Perhaps most tragically, the dangers have long been known, and yet little has changed. Maharashtra’s own surveys have repeatedly highlighted the absence of safety equipment and the lack of accountability among those who employ sanitation labourers.

After the Chandrapur incident, for instance, an internal inquiry admitted that the contractor provided no gas masks, ropes, or ventilation before sending workers into the septic tank. That admission only confirmed what workers themselves had been saying. Nationally, the situation is similar. According to official data presented in Parliament, over 330 people died in India between 2018 and 2022 while cleaning sewers and septic tanks, usually due to “hazardous cleaning” and failure to observe safety precautions.

The pattern is so persistent that in 2022, the Supreme Court of India rebuked government authorities for not providing even basic safety gear to sanitation workers. Yet, despite judicial pressure and media coverage, prosecutions under the 2013 Act remain exceedingly rare. In Vidarbha’s cities and towns, much of the sanitation work is outsourced to private contractors or handled by informal daily-wage workers.

These workers often have no formal employment contracts, which leaves them outside the purview of labour laws and insurance schemes. If they are injured or killed, there is little accountability. Municipal officials and contractors frequently pass blame back and forth, and the legal loopholes mean victims’ families struggle to get justice.

The combination of weak enforcement and workers’ vulnerability creates a dangerous status quo. As one report bluntly observed, “legal bans and policy promises have not translated into measurable outcomes on the ground.” In the case of Vidarbha, this means sanitation workers continue to risk, and sometimes lose their lives, to keep public spaces clean, with their plight often invisible in official statistics.

Policy Gaps and Missed Rehabilitation

The spate of sanitation worker deaths in Vidarbha has laid bare a broader failure of policy: not only are safety regulations being ignored, but the promised support to victims’ families is largely missing as well.

When accidents occur, the response of authorities has often been slow and inadequate.

The 2025 social audit report highlighted that compensation to families of deceased workers was routinely delayed or misappropriated in case after case. In some instances, families were misled about the amount they were entitled to receive.

One sanitation worker’s widow in Mumbai was told she would get a certain settlement, only to later discover the payout was much smaller. Another survivor, a young man who suffered permanent eye damage while cleaning a manhole, was never even documented as an injured worker and thus got no help with his medical bills.

These examples mirror the experience in Vidarbha, where several Nagpur families are still chasing paperwork and petitions to claim the compensation announced for COVID-19 duty deaths. The NMC Karmachari Sanghatana (municipal employees’ union) eventually had to file a plea in the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench to demand that the state honour its ₹50 lakh per family pledge.

More than a year after that legal push, most families had yet to receive their due, stymied by bureaucratic hurdles. Such delays add insult to injury for dependents who have not only lost their primary breadwinner but must also fight for the financial support they were officially promised.

Rehabilitation of sanitation workers, to prevent them from having to take on such dangerous jobs in the first place, is another aspect where policy has fallen short in Vidarbha. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act, beyond banning the work, also mandates rehabilitative measures. The central government launched the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) in the 2010s to help manual scavengers transition to alternative livelihoods.

This scheme offers one-time financial assistance, skill training, and subsidised loans for those willing to leave sanitation work. On paper, it’s a vital initiative to break the cycle of hereditary sanitation labour, which mainly traps Dalit (lower-caste) communities.

In practice, however, SRMS has barely scratched the surface, especially in regions like Vidarbha. There is no public data on how many people in Vidarbha have benefited from SRMS to date. Anecdotal evidence suggests that awareness of the scheme is very low among the intended beneficiaries in smaller Vidarbha towns.

A telling statistic comes from Uttar Pradesh, another large state: out of over 11,000 identified manual scavengers there, only 333 people received any loan or subsidy under the rehabilitation program. This dismal uptake, roughly 3%, hints at the scale of implementation gaps.

Maharashtra has not published similar figures, but social auditors believe the situation is comparable, meaning thousands who should be rehabilitated into safer work remain stuck in the same deadly jobs.

In Vidarbha’s rural pockets, where poverty and lack of education limit other opportunities, many sanitation workers continue in the profession out of sheer necessity, often as a family occupation passed down through generations.

Without a functional rehabilitation drive, these workers have few pathways to escape the dangers inherent in their work.

Recent policy moves offer a glimmer of hope, but also invite scepticism. In 2023, the Union government revamped its approach by launching a new initiative called NAMASTE (National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem). This program, which replaced the older self-employment scheme, is aimed at mechanising sewer and septic tank cleaning and providing dignified livelihoods to sanitation workers. The idea is to eliminate manual entry into sewers entirely by funding modern vacuum pumps, sewer-cleaning machines, and PPE kits for all urban local bodies.

NAMASTE also envisages health insurance and a capacity-building program for sanitation staff. However, like many central schemes, its success will depend on execution at the state and local level.

As of mid-2025, NAMASTE’s on-ground impact in Maharashtra appears limited. Many municipal councils in Vidarbha have yet to receive new machinery or training modules under the scheme, according to local officials. Past experience raises concerns that without sustained political will, such well-intended plans may not reach the street sweepers and sewage cleaners who need them most.

Facing mounting pressure from the judiciary and the central government, Maharashtra’s state authorities have also announced their own measures. In May 2024, the state government unveiled a ₹400 crore action plan to eradicate manual scavenging and improve sanitation worker safety.

This comprehensive plan included several important steps: formalising the employment of sanitation workers (so that they have job security and access to benefits), promoting mechanised cleaning methods, enforcing the use of protective gear with strict supervision, and establishing dedicated emergency response units for sanitation work.

On paper, the plan directly addresses the key failures that led to deaths in Vidarbha and elsewhere. It calls for purchasing mechanised sewer-cleaning vehicles to deploy in smaller cities like Akola and Chandrapur, which currently rely on manual cleaners.

It also proposes mandatory safety audits of contractors and periodic training for all municipal sanitation staff. If implemented fully, such measures could dramatically reduce the risks to workers. However, experts familiar with local conditions caution that implementation is the real test.

Vidarbha’s districts present unique challenges. Many towns lack any sewage infrastructure beyond basic septic tanks, and funding for new equipment is scarce at the municipal level.

Simply buying a few sewer machines for the state will not help a village that has no sewer lines at all. Additionally, the plan’s success hinges on active monitoring and political will in each district. Past audit reports have stressed the need for localised enforcement – dedicated monitoring teams in regions like Vidarbha to ensure laws are followed on the ground.

So far, administrative response in the region has been “inadequate,” as one report put it bluntly. Unless the state government can overcome these on-ground obstacles and hold local bodies accountable, there is a risk that the ₹400 crore initiative may remain a lofty proposal on paper, with little change in day-to-day realities for workers. Community advocates note that even the best policies mean little if victims and their families continue to slip through the cracks.

For now, the families of Vidarbha’s fallen sanitation workers can only wait and watch, hoping that these recent commitments will finally translate into action.

For Vidarbha’s sanitation workers and their families, the past five years have been marked by a series of avoidable tragedies and unfulfilled promises.

Each death, whether from a sewer gas asphyxiation or an on-duty accident, has underscored the human cost of systemic neglect.

Yet time and again, inquiries into these incidents have reached the same verdict: they could have been prevented had the required precautions and policies been in place. This pattern has left the region’s sanitation workforce in a precarious position. The people tasked with doing society’s dirtiest and most dangerous jobs remain marginalised and inadequately protected.

Without tangible improvements in safety standards, rigorous enforcement of laws, and reliable support for those affected, Vidarbha may continue to witness the same cycle of loss.

The shadow of further tragedy will loom over those who toil to keep our cities clean, unless the commitments made on paper are finally turned into concrete safeguards on the ground.

In the end, the legacy of these five painful years is a stark reminder that the lives of sanitation workers cannot be treated as disposable, and it will take more than words to ensure that no one else in Vidarbha has to die to get this point across.