Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender has written a letter to Lt. Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena, expressing deep anguish at the prevalence of manual scavenging in Delhi in violation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 in Delhi, and sought action against erring officials responsible for forcing 8 poor labourers to do manual scavenging in Rohini.
Devender Yadav said that Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s reaction to manual scavenging in Rohini shows BJP’s anti-downtrodden attitude. He said that the BJP Government has not done anything for the benefit of Dalits and the poor in the past 100 days, which exposes BJP’s hollow promises to the poor during the Delhi Assembly elections.
“We are very pained to bring to your kind attention an important issue related to the downtrodden class who are forced to do manual scavenging and repeated violation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 in Delhi”, Devender Yadav pointed out in his letter.
Devender Yadav elaborated that “This obnoxious practice continues unabated in Delhi and around 46 manual scavengers lost their lives in the last five years” while doing manual scavenging. He said that “photos and news were put on X handle of PWD Department on 3rd June, 2025 (Tuesday) regarding 8 labourers cleaning a drain in North-West District of Rohini, Delhi without wearing any protective gear”. He said that after a lot of hue and cry, the PWD Department deleted the said post from the X handle but the violation cannot be condoned by removing the post, and the PWD department cannot escape from the charge of forcing 8 labourer to do manual scavenging despite the prevalence of an Act against such an obnoxious practice.
Devender Yadav pointed out that according to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, more than 72 people died in sewer-related deaths between 2013 and 2024 in Delhi, and two workers died in March this year while cleaning a Delhi Jal Board drain at New Friends Colony.
Devender Yadav said that shockingly, this manual scavenging was justified by Chief Minister Smt. Rekha Gupta, saying ‘there may be places where machines can’t reach’, which was a blatant violation of the apex court order. He said that in this age of robots and AI, it was reprehensible that poor people are forced to do such dangerous work despite clear cut ban by the Act and the Supreme Court of India.
Devender Yadav said that it was inhuman to deploy helpless people to do such dangerous work without any protective gear. He appealed to the LG to take strict action against erring Public Works Department officials of Delhi by directing the Police to register an FIR against them and directions may be issued to the PWD to pay adequate compensation to those workers who were forced into manual scavenging in Rohini.
