Taking suo motu of an incident in which four sanitation workers have died after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a sewage tank at Budha Khera village in district Hisar in Haryana, National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the Chief Secretary of Haryana, calling for a detailed report in the matter within six weeks.
The report is expected to include the action taken against the responsible officers and relief granted to the families of the victims.
Issuing the notices, the NHRC has observed that a large number of workers have died within a short span of time while undertaking the sewage or septic tank cleaning work.
The Commission has observed that the incident indicates that despite the avoidable and unwarranted deaths in sewers and sheer indignity of the work, hazardous cleaning of septic tank without safety equipment continues.
The Commission has been emphasizing upon use of machines for cleaning of septic tanks, sewage plants etc. and to ensure proper safety equipments for the workers but such painful incidents are taking place frequently.
The Commission has noticed that in the case of sanitation workers death in Hisar, the victims are in the age of 25 to 28. Deaths of such young men in these kind of tragic incidents could be averted had proper precaution been taken by the authorities concerned.
Such incidents are indeed indicative of reckless attitude of the civic authorities violating human rights of the poor and innocent workers, the Commission said.
The Commission has further observed that in spite of specific judgments given by the Apex Court and guidelines issued from time to time by different government agencies, the sewage cleaning workers are still being exposed to extreme danger and subjected to indignity by the public authorities.
