Tamil Nadu: NHRC issues notices to state govt, DGP

NEW DELHI: The NHRC on Tuesday said it has issued notices to the Tamil Nadu government and the state's police chief over reports that three workers died due to asphyxiation while cleaning a sewage tank "without any protective gear" at a private unit in Tiruppur district.

The deceased belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, the National Human Rights Commission said in a statement.

The NHRC has observed that the content of the reports, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights.

The Commission has taken "suo motu cognisance of media report that three workers died while another's condition became critical due to asphyxiation after they entered into a sewage tank to clean it without any protective gear at a private industrial unit in Tiruppur district" on May 19, it said.

Reportedly, they were employed at a dyeing mill in the Karaipudur area of Tiruppur and asked to clean the sewage tank of the factory, the rights panel said.

Therefore, the Commission has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Tamil Nadu, seeking a detailed report in four weeks, the NHRC said.

It is expected to include the status of the investigation of the case as well as compensation, if any, paid to the victims' families, the statement said.

According to the media report, carried on May 21, shortly after entering the tank, four workers began to suffocate and then collapsed. The co-workers pulled them out and rushed them to a private hospital, but three of them could not survive.

In the 'Dr. Balram Singh vs Union of India' case, The Supreme Court in its judgement dated October 20, 2023, held that it is the "duty of the local authorities and other agencies to use modern technology for cleaning of sewers, etc".

The Commission has also been consistently advocating a total ban on activities of hazardous cleaning without adequate and proper protective or safety gears or equipment, and also has advocated suitable use of work-friendly and technology-based robotic machines, the statement said.

The NHRC issued an advisory on September 24, 2021 for the Protection of Human Rights of the Persons Engaged in Hazardous Cleaning to the Centre, state governments and local authorities with an objective to ensure complete eradication of such a practice, it added.