TL;DR Between 2014 and 2025, at least 859 sanitation workers died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in India, with deaths recorded every single year, peaking at 131 in 2019 before declining to 43 in 2025. Since 2017, 622 deaths have been officially recorded across states. About 87% of families received full compensation, while roughly 1 in 10 received partial or none. States like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Gujarat account for the largest share of deaths. Despite laws banning manual scavenging and policies promoting mechanisation, hazardous human entry into sewers continues.

Context

Every day, workers descend into manholes, septic tanks and sewage lines across Indian cities and towns to clean what the rest of us flush away and forget. Many of them go in without proper protective gear. In the 2014 film Court, a deceased manhole worker’s wife describes how her husband would look for a cockroach before entering a sewer. If a cockroach was alive inside, it was “safe” to enter. If not, he stayed out. She also said he drank alcohol almost daily before going to work, just to bear the stench. When these workers die inside, it briefly makes the news. Then the cycle continues.

A parliamentary response on 17 March 2026, in reply to a question by Iqra Choudhary, saw the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment state that sewer and septic tank cleaning is an “occupation-based” activity, not caste-based. The data, however, tells a more complicated story.

Who Compiles This Data?
The data comes from the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), an apex body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The NCSK tracks deaths in hazardous sanitation work, monitors compensation disbursals, and receives complaints from workers regarding non-payment of wages, denial of safety equipment, and caste-based discrimination. The Ministry also runs the NAMASTE scheme, launched in 2023-24, to register and protect sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs) and waste pickers.

Where can I download Clean & Structured Data on Sewer Worker Deaths?

Clean, structured, and ready-to-use datasets on sewer and septic tank worker deaths, compensation status, and rehabilitation efforts can be downloaded from Dataful.

Key Insights

Deaths have been recorded every single year since 2014, with no year at zero

India recorded 859 sewer and septic tank cleaner deaths between 2014 and 2025, even though manual scavenging is legally banned under the ‘Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013’. That works out to roughly 72 deaths per year on average. Deaths rose sharply from 62 in 2016 to 111 in 2017, a jump of nearly 79% in a single year. The peak came in 2019 with 131 deaths, the highest in the entire 12-year period.

2020 saw a sudden fall to just 40 deaths, a 69% drop from 2019, almost certainly connected to the pandemic and the associated lockdowns that reduced urban construction and maintenance activity. Deaths rose again to 88 in 2022 before falling to 65 in 2023 and 54 in 2024. The 2025 figure stands at 43.

A notable pattern is that deaths never went below 40 in any year, including during the pandemic. This points to the fact that this is not a problem with occasional spikes. It is a persistent, year-round occupational hazard.

Five states account for more than half the deaths since 2017

Since 2017, 622 deaths have been reported across India. Uttar Pradesh leads with 86 deaths, followed by Maharashtra with 82, Tamil Nadu with 77, Haryana with 76, and Gujarat with 73. Together, these five states account for 394 deaths, about 63% of the total.

Within Uttar Pradesh, the district-level picture is striking. Ghaziabad alone reported 18 deaths, and Gautam Buddha Nagar reported 16. These two districts together account for nearly 40% of UP’s total. This concentration in NCR-adjacent, rapidly urbanising districts suggests that high-density infrastructure development and inadequate mechanisation in growing cities are key risk factors.

Most families got some compensation, but nearly 1 in 10 got nothing

Out of 622 deaths:

• 539 families (87%) received full compensation

• 25 received partial compensation

• 52 received no compensation

• 6 cases were closed

This means around 87% received full compensation, but about 1 in 10 families did not receive any support. In Uttar Pradesh, which had the most deaths at 86, only 68 families received full compensation. Thirteen families received nothing, and 2 received partial compensation. That means about 17% of UP’s affected families either got partial or no compensation, well above the national average of around 12%.

States like Bihar, Chandigarh, and Uttarakhand, where the numbers are smaller, show full compensation paid in all cases. But states with higher death counts consistently show larger gaps in disbursal.

The official death count changed by 46 in about six weeks

One of the most striking issues in the data is a direct inconsistency in official figures from the same ministry within a short time. On 03 February 2026, the government reported 668 deaths of sanitation workers since 2017. On 17 March 2026, the figure reported for the same period was 622 deaths, a drop of 46, or about 6.9% lower in just over six weeks.

There are a few possible explanations. Some deaths may have been reclassified or removed after verification. Duplicate entries across state reports could have been identified and removed. The two responses may also have drawn from different data cuts or reporting windows from the NCSK.

However, since neither response explains the discrepancy, it raises real questions about data accuracy in a matter as serious as worker fatalities. A death that disappears from one official count to another did not stop being a death.

Nearly 90,000 workers are now registered under NAMASTE, but identification gaps remain
The NAMASTE scheme, launched in 2023-24, is the government’s primary mechanism to protect sewer and septic tank workers. As of 12 March 2026, 89,248 SSWs and 2,34,425 waste pickers had been validated under the scheme nationally. In Uttar Pradesh, 12,424 SSWs and 35,641 waste pickers were registered.

The scheme provides personal protective equipment kits, occupational safety training, health insurance under Ayushman Bharat, and capital subsidies for sanitation machinery. However, the government’s own response notes that data on action taken against contractors or civic bodies for violating mechanisation norms is “not maintained centrally.” This means there is no national picture of accountability for those who send workers into sewers without protection.

On manual scavengers, the latest survey found zero, but earlier surveys in 2013 and 2018 identified 58,098 of which 32,473 were in Uttar Pradesh alone. All identified individuals were given a one-time cash assistance of Rs. 40,000. Skill development training was provided to 27,928 of them, and capital subsidies of up to Rs. 5 lakhs went to 2,679 individuals. These are meaningful numbers, but the one-time cash amount is low, and the total coverage for skill training and capital support is well below the total identified.

Why Does It Matter?
Sewer and septic tank deaths are not accidents. They result from sending unprotected workers into confined, toxic spaces, despite the practice being illegal since 2013.

The data shows three things. Deaths occur every year across major states, with no zero-death year, meaning the problem is not being solved. Compensation reaches most families, but about 1 in 10 receive none. The data itself is also inconsistent, with a 46-death gap between two official reports for the same period.

For policymakers, this means enforcing accountability, ensuring full compensation, and treating each death as a law enforcement failure. For everyone else, it is a reminder that essential workers still lack basic protection.

Key Numbers

• Deaths recorded (2014 to 2025, as on 31 December 2025): 859

• Deaths since 2017: 622

• Highest single-year death toll: 131 in 2019

• Lowest single-year death toll: 40 in 2020 (pandemic year)

• Top 5 states by deaths since 2017: Uttar Pradesh (86), Maharashtra (82), Tamil Nadu (77), Haryana (76), Gujarat (73)

• Compensation status of 622 deaths: Full compensation (539, 87%), Partial (25, 4%), None (52, 8%), Case closed (6, 1%)

• SSWs validated under NAMASTE as of March 2026: 89,248

• Manual scavengers identified in surveys (2013 and 2018): 58,098, of which 32,473 in Uttar Pradesh