Sewer-Death Compensation Raised to ₹30 Lakh: Supreme Court Orders National Survey and Phased End of Manual Sewer Cleaning

Dr. Balram Singh filed an Article 32 petition seeking implementation of the 1993 and 2013 Acts that prohibit manual scavenging, alleging that their essential provisions had not been implemented (paras 3-4). In 2014 this Court had directed rehabilitation of identified manual scavengers and compensation of Rs 10 lakh for each sewer death (para 5). In 2023 the Court added the Union, the NCSK, the NCSC and the NCST as parties and appointed an amicus curiae (para 7). The Union contended that the Act required only localized surveys by local bodies and that two national surveys had been conducted in 2013 and 2018 (para 52).

The 2013 Act is emancipatory, and its rehabilitation entitlements reach only those identified in a final list prepared after a survey (paras 49, 51). Its implementation cannot be left to local bodies alone; the Central and State Governments must lay down when and by whom surveys are to be conducted (paras 53-54). Because the Act and Rules prescribe how a survey is made, the 2013 and 2018 exercises, held without the required institutions, provisional lists, objections or final lists, were not valid surveys (paras 57-58, 60). The NCSK was short-staffed, and many States had not constituted the monitoring and vigilance committees or kept them functional (paras 67, 70, 76, 78). Hazardous sewer cleaning, like manual scavenging, is a manifestation of untouchability abolished by Article 17 (para 83). Where protective gear and cleaning devices are not provided, the work amounts to forced labour under Article 23, and a plea that the worker entered the sewer voluntarily cannot stand (paras 90-91). Families of those who die in sewers must receive entitlements akin to those given to manual scavengers (para 94).