941 Workers Died While Cleaning Sewers Or Septic Tanks: Centre

Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of such deaths at 213, followed by 153 in Gujarat, 104 in Uttar Pradesh, 98 in Delhi, 84 in Karnataka and 73 in Haryana, the data showed.

As many as 941 workers died while cleaning sewers or septic tanks while there are no reports of death due to manual scavenging, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar said this in a written reply. However, he did not give the time period during which these deaths were reported. A total of 58,098 manual scavengers have been identified across the country, he said. "There is no report of death due to manual scavenging. However, we have reports regarding deaths of workers while being engaged in cleaning of sewers or septic tanks," he said.