New Delhi: Nearly 500 sanitation workers died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks across India over seven and a half years, yet the government officially recorded zero deaths due to manual scavenging. The contradiction sits at the heart of a written reply submitted by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha.
Government data shows that 498 workers died during sewer and septic-tank cleaning between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2026. The highest toll came in 2019, when 132 workers died. Deaths in subsequent years were recorded as 34 in 2020, 62 in 2021, 88 in 2022, 65 in 2023, 54 in 2024, and 47 in 2025. Sixteen more deaths were reported in the first six months of 2026.
Despite these figures, the government stated plainly: “No death has been reported due to manual scavenging.”
The explanation rests entirely on how work is defined. Under the official classification, manual scavenging involves handling human excreta from insanitary toilets, open drains, pits, railway tracks, or other notified locations before decomposition. Hazardous cleaning, by contrast, refers to manually entering a sewer or septic tank without prescribed protective equipment or safety precautions. The government placed all 498 deaths in the second category, not the first.
A survey conducted across all districts during 2024-25 identified no manual scavengers at all. Every district declared itself free of the practice. This contrasts sharply with surveys from 2013 and 2018, which identified 58,098 manual scavengers across 17 states. Uttar Pradesh alone accounted for 32,473, followed by Maharashtra with 6,325, Uttarakhand with 4,988, and Assam with 3,921.
Compensation data adds further concern. Following a Supreme Court judgment in October 2023, the compensation amount rose from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. Of the 498 cases, 345 received the full Rs 10 lakh payment and 75 received the full Rs 30 lakh. In 22 cases, compensation was partial. In 56 cases, payment could not be confirmed. For 2025 alone, payment could not be confirmed in 20 of the 47 reported deaths.
The government also reported that 89,915 workers had been profiled under the NAMASTE scheme, which provides safety equipment, training, health insurance, and support for mechanised sanitation machinery. No deadline was provided for full mechanisation, and no time-bound rehabilitation plan was disclosed for affected workers and their families.
