He Died on Diwali Inside a Sewage Pipe

[Occupational Safety and Health - CEC in Media]

on the 29th of November, a group of four safai karmacharis (sweepers) and three beldars (diggers) along with three more senior persons, all working for the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), will be returning from a week-long official trip to Japan and South Korea where they are learning first-hand about sanitation, cleanliness, waste disposal as well as the maintenance of urban colonies, markets etc. The NDMC Chairman, Naresh Kumar, said, "We took the decision to boost their morale". The NDMC would achieve real morale-boosting if it implemented the stringent safety regulations which govern sanitary work in those countries. A week before the team of workers departed, one of their colleagues who, unlike them, was a contract sanitary worker for the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), had died inside a pipe in the Keshopur Sewage Treatment Plant while repairing a leak.