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Methods and sources

Sewer and septic tank deaths

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What this shows

The government’s own counts of deaths in hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, with compensation cases and the workers it has profiled, as 9 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha answers give them, and SKA’s and DASAM’s counts beside them, as news reports carry them.

What it does not show: Deaths no one recorded: the government’s counts are deaths it recorded, and SKA’s and DASAM’s are deaths they documented, with no published list behind either.

Sources

  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3453: Welfare and Profiling of Sewer and Septic Tank Workers, dated 17 Dec 2024. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2648: Sewer and Septic Tank Workers, Annexure, dated 16 Dec 2025. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 541: Sewers and Septic Tanks Workers, Annexures I and II, dated 3 Feb 2026. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1520: Sewer and Septic Tank Cleaning Work, Annexure, dated 28 Jul 2026. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2562: Deaths Due to Manual Scavenging, Annexure-I, dated 4 Aug 2026. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Rajya Sabha, Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 1250: Persons Engaged in Manual Cleaning of Sewers and Septic Tanks, Annexure, dated 29 Jul 2026. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Rajya Sabha, Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2047: Deaths During Sewer and Septic Tank Cleaning, Annexure, dated 5 Aug 2026. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Rajya Sabha, Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2048: Deaths and Safety Violations in Sewer and Septic Tank Cleaning Operations, Annexure, dated 5 Aug 2026. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2730: Manual Scavengers, Annexure-III, dated 4 Aug 2026. Primary source.
  • Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), as reported by The Mooknayak, ‘Stop Deaths in Sewers & Septic Tanks’: SKA Protests at Jantar Mantar, Alleges ‘Systematic Erasure of Dalit Lives by Manipulating Data’ (SKA’s memorandum to the Prime Minister of 25 March 2026, as reported), dated 26 Mar 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.
  • Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), as reported by SabrangIndia, Though sewer deaths have crossed the 100 mark this year, government is silent: SKA (SKA’s statement of July 2026, as published), dated 9 Jul 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.
  • Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), as reported by SabrangIndia, #STOPKILLINGUS Protest at Jantar Mantar on August 4 against GOI’s “cover-up” of Manual Scavenging deaths (SKA’s press release of 3 August 2026, as reported), dated 3 Aug 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.
  • Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), as reported by The Mooknayak, ‘Stop Killing Us’: Protesters Accuse Govt of Hiding 261 Sewer & Septic Tank Deaths (SKA’s figures at its protest of 4 August 2026, as reported), dated 5 Aug 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.
  • Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), as reported by ThePrint, How sewer deaths scar families for years (SKA’s yearly counts, as reported), dated 17 Aug 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.
  • Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM), as reported by The Mooknayak, 55 Sanitation Workers Killed in Manual Scavenging Operations Across India in 2026 So Far: DASAM (DASAM’s statement of June 2026, as reported), dated 30 Jun 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.
  • Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM), as reported by The Mooknayak, Manual Scavenging Deaths Persist Nationwide: DASAM Documents 66 Killings Between February and July 2026 (DASAM’s statement of July 2026, as reported), dated 29 Jul 2026. Shadow: a count or report kept outside the state, by the organisation named.

Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 20 Oct 2026.

Read these with the numbers

  • These are deaths the government recorded. Deaths that were never reported are not in these figures.
  • Question 1520 gives its period only as “last three years”, without dates.
  • For 2025, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 541 and Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 1250 give different counts, 43 and 47, and neither says why. Both are shown; neither is corrected.
  • A State or UT that Question 1520 or Question 2562 does not list has no figure from that answer. That does not mean it had no deaths.
  • Question 2562 also gives the people identified as doing manual scavenging in the 2013 and 2018 surveys, and those given skill development training or capital subsidy from 2021-22 to 2025-26. They are not used here: they do not count deaths, FIRs, compensation or validated sewer and septic tank workers.
  • Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2730 also gives the people identified as doing manual scavenging in the 2013 and 2018 surveys (Annexure-I), and validated sewer and septic tank workers by State/UT (Annexure-II). Annexure-I is not used here; Annexure-II is not read in this version, and only the all-India count the reply’s text gives is used.
  • Only the answers listed under Sources are used here. Other answers in Parliament on the same subject are not yet in this piece.
  • Asked for inspections and prosecutions against contractors, agencies and officials, Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2048 says no such data is maintained centrally; Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2047 says the same of data on agencies and authorities violating the law. Both give the FIRs NCSK reported instead.
  • Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question 2048 also gives the safety devices provided to Emergency Response Sanitation Units, the workshops held and the workers given occupational safety training. They are not used here: they do not count deaths, FIRs, compensation or validated workers.
  • The movement’s counts come from news reports of SKA’s and DASAM’s statements; SKA’s own memorandums and DASAM’s own statements were not available to read as published. The reports call these figures SKA’s own documentation and compilation, released in its statements and memorandums. None of the reports, and no statement found, publishes SKA’s method or the list of deaths behind its totals.
  • SKA and DASAM do not count the same deaths the same way as the government or as each other, and their periods differ, so no gap between the counts is worked out.
  • The government’s count for 2026 is Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2730’s, for 2026, up to 30 June 2026 only; no source used here gives it by month.
  • SabrangIndia’s report of SKA’s statement also gives deaths in 2016 and 2017. The statement says these deaths “were reported” without saying whose count they are, so they are not shown as SKA’s count.
  • SabrangIndia’s report of SKA’s statement also gives deaths since the 2013 Act came into force, and their split by State. They are totals from late 2013 with no year rows, and no government figure in this piece covers the same period.
  • The Mooknayak’s report of SKA’s memorandum also gives the government’s yearly counts as SKA’s memorandum gives them. The government’s counts are read from its own answers in Parliament, not from a report of them.
  • No answer used here gives the total amount of compensation paid, or any conviction; Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2730 names the amount of a full payment only in its column headings.
  • No answer used here gives the caste of those who died, and none is inferred. The category figures are the ministry’s record of living workers under NAMASTE.
  • No rate or share is worked out from these counts.

Key terms

NCSK
The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis. The ministry’s answers say the death and compensation figures come from it.
NAMASTE
The National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem, under which the ministry profiles and validates sewer and septic tank workers.
Unstarred question
A question in Parliament answered in writing, without a debate on the floor.
FIR
A First Information Report, the police record that opens a criminal case.
SKA
The Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a national movement of sanitation workers for the eradication of manual scavenging. It keeps its own count of deaths in sewers and septic tanks.
DASAM
The Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM), a Dalit and Adivasi rights platform. It kept a monthly count of sanitation workers’ deaths in 2026.
Shadow count
A count kept outside the state by a civil-society organisation, shown beside the government’s and named with the organisation and its method.

Changelog and corrections

Version 5: adds Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2730 (4 August 2026), a scan read by eye: deaths by year from 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2026, each year under the answer’s four compensation columns, so that the Magazine can show these figures from Data. Two exhibits are new, compensation by year and the government’s two counts by year beside SKA’s; the comparison of the answers’ counts and the counts for 2026 now include this answer’s figures, and the text that said no source gives the government’s count for 2026 now gives it. For 2019, 2020 and 2025, its counts differ from Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 541’s; both are shown, neither is corrected. No earlier figure changed. Version 4 (released 12 October 2026, superseded by version 5): added the movement’s counts beside the government’s: SKA’s by year for 2022 to 2025, since January 2021, and for 2026 so far, and DASAM’s by month for 2026, from 7 news reports of their statements, so that the state’s record and the shadow record stand side by side. No earlier figure or exhibit changed. Version 3 (released 12 October 2026, superseded by version 4): added 3 Rajya Sabha answers, Unstarred Question 1250 (29 July 2026), Unstarred Question 2047 (5 August 2026) and Unstarred Question 2048 (5 August 2026): a second count of deaths in 2025, 47, set beside Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 541’s 43 without reconciling them; and compensation paid in full (268) and in part (18) with 193 FIRs lodged, 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2026, as their own measure. No earlier figure changed. Version 2 (released 12 October 2026, superseded by version 3): added Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2562 (4 August 2026), deaths by State/UT from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2026, shown on the State/UT map and beside the other answers’ counts, and its later count of 89,915 validated workers. Version 1 (released 11 October 2026, superseded): deaths, FIRs and compensation cases, all India and by State/UT, and workers validated under NAMASTE, from 4 Lok Sabha answers.

How corrections work. Every change is listed here.

Cite this

The Dalit Project, “Sewer and septic tank deaths”, version 5, data.dalitproject.org/sewer-deaths/, as on 20 Oct 2026.