More than 150 workers have reportedly died in sewer manholes and septic tanks, in the past two decades in Tamil Nadu.
Many of the deaths have been reported in the Chennai metropolitan area and its outlying neighbourhoods.
The State government is yet to generate a comprehensive database on deaths of manual scavengers.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, representatives of a coalition of 15 organisations working for the welfare of manual scavengers and sanitary municipal workers said the government must necessarily compensate the families of the dead workers.
“The government has to pay compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to each of the 152 families. Rehabilitation is yet to commence. The families have to be identified,” said A. Narayanan, director of Changeindia, an NGO.
So far, the Chennai Corporation, Metrowater and other agencies have identified less than 10 families.
A group of NGOs, on Monday, submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell, principal secretary of municipal administration and water supply, and the chief secretary.
The focus of the memorandum is effective implementation of various provisions of the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and the directions of the Supreme Court for compensation to families of the labourers.
The activists met senior officials and explained the key issues concerning implementation of the Act and the Supreme Court directions. They stressed the need for improving sanitation in the city.
