New Delhi: More than 55 sanitation workers lost their lives while cleaning sewers, septic tanks and other confined sanitation spaces across India between February and June 2026, according to the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch, or DASAM.
The rights group said the deaths expose continuing failures in protecting sanitation workers despite laws prohibiting manual scavenging and manual sewer cleaning. The report follows a January 2025 Supreme Court order directing an end to manual scavenging and manual sewer cleaning in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
DASAM said June recorded 18 deaths, while March reported 20. April saw 10 deaths, May recorded six and February reported one.
The organisation alleged that many of these deaths are recorded as workplace accidents, industrial accidents or toxic gas exposure instead of hazardous sanitation work. It said this practice reduces accountability.
According to the report, fatal incidents during June included four deaths each in Surat and Bengaluru, three each in Ludhiana, Faridabad and Delhi’s Mundka industrial area, and one death in Lucknow.
DASAM alleged that workers entered confined spaces without oxygen support, gas detectors, breathing equipment, protective clothing, safety harnesses or emergency rescue systems.
The report highlighted the June 26 incident in Delhi’s Mundka area, where three workers died inside a septic tank. DASAM claimed the workers entered the tank without basic safety equipment and collapsed while trying to rescue one another.
Calling the deaths a form of caste based structural violence, the organisation demanded strict enforcement of the Manual Scavenging Act. It also sought registration of FIRs in every death, compensation of Rs 30 lakh for each victim’s family, mechanised sewer cleaning, criminal action against contractors and officials, and an end to the misclassification of such deaths.
