The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that 22 people had died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in 2021 so far.
To a question by MP Bhagirath Choudhary, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale’s written reply showed that five deaths each had taken place in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, four in Delhi, three in Gujarat, two each in Haryana and Telangana and one in Punjab. Last year, there had been 19 such deaths, while the numbers in 2019, 2018 and 2017 had been 117, 70 and 93 respectively.
As part of the national policy for mechanised sanitation, 1,416 sanitation workers (1,383 in Andhra Pradesh and 33 in Rajasthan) had been assisted with concessional loans through State channelising agencies to buy equipment for cleaning of drains in the past three financial years and this FY, the reply said.
In addition, capital subsidy of ₹5 lakh had been given to 142 workers across nine States or UTs. From 2018-2019 till December 15, 24,609 sanitation workers had been given upskilling training, the MoS said.
