In what can only be described as cruel irony, two labourers died on Tuesday after descending into a manhole in front of the house of Minister for Social Welfare H. Anjaneya, who has the responsibility to ensure the prevention of incidents of manual scavenging in the State.
Further, the two workers — Prasanna Kumar (29) and Yathiraj (23) — were engaged by a contractor hired by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to clear the clog in front of the quarters of the Income Tax and Central Excise Department.
Around noon on Tuesday, Yathiraj entered the manhole — which comes under the ambit of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 — to clear the drain. Seeing him suffocate, Prasanna Kumar reached out to help his colleague, but fell down into the manhole.
This is the ninth death since the practice was prohibited in 1993, and observers say this incident points to the government’s inability to halt manual scavenging.
