The Public Welfare Department of Delhi, on June 3, 2025, shared pictures of manual scavenging, where workers, wearing no protective gear or safety measures, were involved in cleaning drains in Rohini, Delhi. Following severe criticism from netizens, who called out the civic body’s insensitivity for openly sharing a prohibited act, the pictures were deleted from their handle. The public handle of PWD has shared four pictures, titled “de-silting work’ which show workers half naked, no protective gear such as goggles and respiratory masks, or having access to clean water when needed, both during and after the process
At a Press Conference, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta responded to the backlash, stating that the Government of Delhi was just following the court-mandated guidelines for de-silting. When asked about the posts, she said that not every drain can be cleaned with machines. “Every drain has its own situation. At every drain, machines might not be able to work. It is possible that there was a drain where the machines were unable to work. The government’s target is to completely desilt all the drains. The work is being carried out keeping court guidelines in mind,” she said.
Following the backlash, a senior official from PWD stated that a junior engineer had been dismissed, as the workers had not been provided with protective gear. The PTI reported.
Though the de-silting involves cleaning rainwater drains, it is less likely to involve human excreta. However, in many drains across Delhi, it is not the case. The chemical waste and human excreta also end up in rainwater drains. In any case, hiring workers for ‘cleaning hazardous sewers.’
The Manual Scavenging Prohibition Act of 2013 not only prohibits the manual cleaning of sewage drains and the use of bare hands to clean excreta, but also the cleaning of hazardous sewers without safety measures and protective gear.
In April 2024, the Delhi High Court issued an order to unify drain management, and since then, the National Green Tribunal has committed to desilting 23 drains by May 2025. In their February 25 report, I&FC assured commitment to the stated timelines with regular progress monitoring and confirmed arrangements for maintaining water flow during the rains, as well as appointments of external agencies for inspection and desliting operations.
However, these operations are not overseen to ensure the safety of the sanitation workers involved in the process. In Delhi, there is a burgeoning number of cases in which sanitation workers involved illegally in manual scavenging have lost their lives.
In such a case, recently reported was the death of two sanitation workers, reportedly hired by private contractors, to clean a sewage tank in a mall in West Delhi, without any protective gear.
In 2025, at least 20 such cases were reported nationwide from February to May.
