Sewer Cleaning Deaths: Pay Rs 30 Lakh Compensation To Next Of Kin, Orders Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed government authorities to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the kin of those who die while cleaning sewers.

A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar also directed that those who suffer permanent disability while cleaning sewers will be paid a minimum compensation of Rs 20 lakh, PTI reported.

For those who suffer any other form of disability while cleaning sewers, their families will have to be given a sum of Rs 10 lakh, the Supreme Court bench added while hearing a PIL on Friday.

“The Union and the state governments must ensure that manual scavenging is completely eradicated,” the bench said.

The bench directed government agencies to coordinate and ensure that such incidents don’t occur.

Manual scavenging is banned under Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

The caste-based practice was first banned in 1993, but it still prevails in India.

About 350 people have died in sewers in the last five years, PTI reported citing government data shared in Lok Sabha last year. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi accounted for 40% of these deaths.