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A contract sanitation worker from Chennai Water Supply and Sewerage Board died of asphyxiation, while two others lost consciousness on the afternoon of Saturday, October 4, while cleaning an underground sewer in Chennai’s Kolathur.
The deceased has been identified as K Kuppan (37), a native of Kallakurichi district.
According to the police, Kuppan descended into the sewer but found it difficult to breathe after inhaling toxic gas and fell unconscious. His coworkers Sankar and his site supervisor S Hariharan (28) who rushed to rescue him also collapsed at the spot.
Upon receiving information, fire and rescue services personnel secured the three and moved them to Periyar Nagar Government Hospital, where Kuppan was declared dead. His body was later shifted to the Government Stanley Hospital for autopsy. Sankar was later moved to Government Peripheral Hospital in Anna Nagar, while Hariharan was shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) for further treatment. Police are yet to reveal the caste and other details of the victims.
Speaking to TNM, Kolathur police said that the contract manager Suresh Kumar has been charged with causing death by negligence, as well as under section 2(g) of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and remanded to judicial custody.
The section defines “manual scavenger” as a person who manually cleans, carries, disposes of, or handles human excreta in any manner in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or a pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed of, or on a railway track or other such spaces or premises. This does not include a sewer or a septic tank.
The Act separately defines “hazardous cleaning” of a sewer or septic tank as “manual cleaning” by a worker without the employer providing them with protective gear, other cleaning devices, and without following safety precautions.
It also states that a person engaged or employed to clean excreta with the help of “devices” or “protective gear” will not be considered 'manual scavenger'. This narrow and ambiguous definition is utilised by employers to hire workers to do manual scavenging.
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