Ground Report: Family of sanitation worker grappling with financial problems, had died after inhaling poisonous gases while cleaning the sewer

New Delhi— Once again, two people died after going inside the sewer. The latest incident happened at Mundka, New Delhi. A security guard also died in an attempt to save the life of Rohit Chandilya, who worked as a sanitation worker and had gone down the manhole to clean the drain and succumbed to the toxic gases.

The moment The Mooknayak mentioned the death of the sanitation worker inside the manhole to a Rickshaw puller near the home of Rohit Chandaliya, he immediately replied " Yes, that Valmiki Na? and took us to the home of Chandaliya, who was about 29 years of age. Ashok, a security guard who climbed down the manhole also died in an attempt to save Rohit.

Let us get the lowdown of the whole incident

Rohit's wife, son, and mother-in-law were present, when we reached his house, measuring about 10×8.

Rohit's wife Pinky says, "At around 2:30, Rohit was cleaning the sewer when there was a strong current of water and he got bogged down. His body was recovered by late evening."

Pinky adds, that Ashok was the guard who saw Rohit going inside. After a while as soon as he realised that Rohit was stuck inside, he also climbed down the sewer to save him but unfortunately, both of them were caught inside.

She also tells that the gas had subsumed the sewer and the person who was abseiled down to rescue these two had to be pulled back because of the excessive gas formation. Police reached the spot upon receiving the news and with the help of the fire brigade and JCB, both bodies were recovered at around 6 PM. The police immediately took them to the hospital, where both of them were declared brought dead by the doctor.

What will be the future of the child and wife?

Rohit had married only about five years ago.  He wanted to make his son a "big man".  Rohit's mother-in-law, Rani says, "Rohit was not much educated, earlier he used to work in a private company but after a year he left the job and for the last four years he was working for Pradhan Chandan Kumar Mishra.."

Rohit left behind his wife and about 4-year-old son. Pinky says, "The son keeps saying papa-papa throughout the day. He (Rohit) loved his son dearly. Even though he used to earn 10 thousand in a month, sometimes he used to bring toys worth 200-300 and sometimes even 500 for the son. He never used to disappoint his son, even if he had no money in his pocket.

The tears in Pinky's eyes seemed to have dried up, it appears as if all hopes are lost after Rohit's demise. Every time she talks about raising her son, who seems to be her last hope.

The widow has to resort to lies that "Papa has gone to Bengal and would bring toys"  toward off persistent inquiry from her son.

The government claims door-to-door defecation and water, but the situation here is different.

As opposed to the government's claim of having provided door-to-door defecation facilities; neither toilet nor water supply has Rohit's home in the national capital of the country – Delhi.

Rohit's wife Pinky bemoans that there is no toilet in their house.  For defecation, they have to use a common toilet,  a short distance from the house as they cannot afford a room with an attached toilet, which would cost Rs 4000- 5000, per month against the Rs 3,000 rent per month they pay for the room they live in.

They have to depend upon others' homes to fetch drinking water as they lack even the basic plumbing facilities like a tap or a hand pump. Rohit used to manage this task, but now his widow would have to do this work.

"We are weak people, with whom should we fight… with the government?"

Elaborating on the incidents of September 9, she says that Rohit had come home around 1 o'clock, and looked a little upset. When asked about it, he said that he has cleaned the sewer twice but everyone is insisting to go inside it once again.

Blaming the flat owners and Pradhan for her husband's death she says."If they were being sent inside (manhole), they should have been given support (protective apparel)". He was sent inside without any support, rope or mask with hazardous gas accumulated inside.  Water gushed inside and the breadwinner of her family has swept away.

She complains further that "They did not call the workers who wears a protective kit and rescue the stranded individuals within five minutes, instead (they) kept breaking it with a flat drill. The JCB came at 4 o'clock and then took them out at 6 o'clock.  No one was ready to go in."

Pinky gets a lump in her throat and in a grim voice, she rues that "Police did not ask anyone to accompany the family.  Everyone took him to the hospital and when everything was over, they came out of the hospital and were allowed a short glimpse of Rohit's face only while taking his body for post-mortem.

On the question of FIR, Pinky's mother reveals in low voice exuding helplessness that "we have named Pradhan (Chandan Mishra) in the FIR because Rohit used to work for him. She also pins it on the on-lookers  "But then everyone there was looking on helplessly, but we cannot name everyone in the FIR and antagonize everybody. How do we fight the government?  We are weak people.  We don't have the strength, to whom should I speak to?  Now our man is also gone, what should we do?"

In a written complaint by the family, Chandan Kumar Mishra and people living in DDA were held responsible for Rohit's death and strict action has been demanded against all the accused.  While registering the case, Chandan Kumar Mishra has been booked under Section 304A of IPC as opposed to the family members' demand of imposing Section 302 and SC ST Act on Chandan.

In the name of help, the wife got the job of sweeping the daily base!

Pinky tells that DM has given her an amount of one lakh and DDA flats have given her an amount of one lakh thirty thousand. When we asked about the job, Pinky's mother tells that she has been given a job on daily wage, which involves sweeping the office of DDA flats near the police post.  She further states that the authorities have assured her that she will not be removed from the job as long as she is alive.

Mother's big heart!

There is a feeling of respect and sympathy in the heart of Rani for Ashok, who acting as a good Samaritan had descended into the sewer to save Rohit.  "We don't know much but he was lighter (was younger)than Rohit, he was from Haryana and had got the job at his father's place, when he retired."

Further, Rohit's wife told us that his (Ashok's) entire family is over. Their wife died long back and now he is also dead. On a positive note, sheavers "we will still manage to raise him (Pointing towards her son); will work for the whole day, will scrounge, but we will still bring him up.  But what will happen to those children whose parents are no more?  How will they live?  " God forbids if such tragedy befalls anyone.

Is the government responsible for the string of deaths?

Even after 75 years of independence, the inhuman work of manual scavenging is being practiced in our country.

The Government of India passed the "Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Toilets (Prohibition) Act" in 1993.  Under this, the employment of people as manual scavengers was banned.  In this, the work of manual scavenging was described as an offense and provided for fines and imprisonment. Nevertheless, the scourge of manual scavenging has continued unabated.

In 2013 the Government of India passed the "Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act", which prohibits any work being done as manual scavengers and makes arrangements for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers and their families.  Under this act, arrangements were made to provide training to manual scavengers, to give loans, and to provide houses to live.

Despite the aforementioned rules and regulations, manual scavenging is being practiced in the country.  People lose their lives every year as they are sent down the drain for cleaning without any security cover.

According to the Safai Karamchari Andolan, about 7.7 lakh people clean the sewer in the country even today.  And since 2000,1760 sewer cleaners have died.

We tried to contactMundka the police station for information on further action relating to this incident but they could not be contacted.