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New Delhi: A Dalit sanitation worker allegedly died while manually cleaning a deep drain in Delhi‘s Dilshad Garden without safety gear, supervised by a mechanism on March 30.
Rahul Bed, aged 32, was a contractual sanitation worker from the Valmiki community who was manually desilting an eight to 10-feet-deep drain in Tahripur. According to the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch, its fact-finding team found that the incident took place under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department, raising serious concerns about negligence and basic labour protections.
On the day of the incident, Rahul had gone to collect two months’ of unpaid wages but was reportedly forced into cleaning the drain in hazardous conditions, DASAM said, with the employers dangling his payment on completing the work.
Rahul and his co-worker started the task at 8 am, and by 2 pm, he was unresponsive. It took rescue operations allegedly two hours to arrive, and he was declared dead on arrival at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.
Rahul’s family, along with witnesses, claimed that he was coerced into the toxic environment without any safety gear, exposing him to lethal gases. Even after his death, Rahul’s family was informed hours later, at around 5 pm, by an unknown person, signalling delay and insensitivity.
Rahul’s family firmly denied that his death was accidental and alleged it was due to the unsafe working conditions and toxic gas exposure.
The family noted that his body was discovered in clean clothing, raising suspicion of tampering with evidence.
“We sent Rahul at 8 in the morning to collect his pending salary, but instead of paying him, the contractor told him to first clean the drain and only then he would get his two months’ wages,” Rahul’s sister told Dasam’s fact-finding team.
“We never imagined this would lead to his death,” she added. “This tragedy happened because of toxic fumes, hazardous conditions, and the negligence of the contractor and the PWD.”
She said that three days after his death, and still no official from the department, not even the contractor, had met them. “We received his body on March 31.”
“He was found dead in the drain around 2 pm, and the police took nearly two hours to recover him and bring him to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, where he was declared dead. We were not informed by anyone, neither the contractor nor co-workers. Someone else told us around 5 pm and we were asked to rush to the hospital.”
Rahul’s brother Vijay made similar statements. “When people clean drains, they usually wear only underwear, but Rahul was found in full clothes, and they were clean. He was forced into death for wages. We suspect the contractor tried to remove evidence,” he said.
Unmarried, Rahul was the youngest in his family, with five brothers and one sister. “Some people even threatened us to remove the contractor’s name, but the best officer assured us that justice would be done. The police kept pushing for cremation, but we refused until we were given assurance of 30 lakh rupees compensation,” Vijay said.
However, no arrests have been made yet, while the family continue to wait for their compensation.
The DASAM’s preliminary findings suggested that the incident was a blatant violation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013).
Although a first information report was registered, the organisation stated that certain provisions under the MS Act 2013 and the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe Act were initially excluded.
“They were only added later following sustained pressure, raising concerns about the handling of the case and the reluctance to invoke stringent accountability,” DASAM said.
The police have since added Section 106 (causing death by negligence) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
This post was last modified on April 9, 2026 1:40 pm