Tech advancement fails to stop manual scavenging

Body of the second worker yet to be fished out

Tuesday’s incident wherein two daily wage labourers met their horrible end in a sewerage line throws focus on how despite the much vaunted technological advancement in maintenance of sewer lines, use of manual labour remains the norm. If not for the twin deaths, the brazen violation of human dignity would have gone unnoticed, as is the case in all such instances where labourers are engaged to enter sewage manholes. The body of the second worker, Anthaiah, is yet to be fished out, and authorities have given up their search in the sewerage pipeline. When the news last came in, the search had shifted to a lake 15 km away in Pasumamula village, where the body is hoped to have arrived along with the sewage flow.