Andhra Pradesh High Court calls for data pertaining to ‘sewer deaths' from 1993
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the Commissioner of Municipal Administration to collect data pertaining to the death of workers during the cleaning up of sewers from all the municipal corporations, municipalities and other local bodies from the year 1993, in order to pay compensation and rehabilitate their families as per norms.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati said the data should reflect the exact number of 'sewer deaths' as the issue of payment of compensation could not be restricted to the case of Meda Manikyala Rao, a contract worker, who died due to inhalation of toxic fumes in a manhole (in Vijayawada city) that he had entered for cleaning.
The data collection was intended to compensate the families of all those who died under such situations.
Hearing a PIL filed by advocate P. Raviteja on behalf of T. Daalaiah, a retired employee, for justice to be done to manual scavengers, in compliance with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, on April 23, 2025, the judges said the Commissioner of Municipal Administration should also gather information from the unions working for the welfare and benefit of such workers.
The matter was posted for further hearing to July 16, 2025.
As far as the death of Manikyala Rao was concerned, the court ordered that the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation pay ₹20 lakh to his family, in addition to ₹10 lakh that had already been given, as per the Supreme Court judgments in the cases of Balram Singh vs. Union of India and others, and Safai Karamchari vs. Union of India and others.
The court also directed that the State provide employment to Manikyala Rao's wife in order to ensure full rehabilitation to the next of their kin, including education to the wards, and appropriate skill training as mandated by the Supreme Court within two months from the above date.
Responsibility in the form of monetary liability had to be pinned on the agencies for which the workers did manual scavenging.
If the sewer workers who lost their lives were directly working under the control and supervision of the regular employees of the corporations, municipalities and other local bodies, such officers should also be held accountable by making appropriate remarks in their service records so as to prevent them from seeking promotion, the court ordered.
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