Representative image | Photo Credit: AP

Three workers died on Sunday (February 2, 2025) morning while cleaning a clogged drain in the Bantala area of the Kolkata Leather Complex. The deceased workers were identified at Farzem Sheikh, Hashi Sheikh, and Suman Sardar, all residents of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.

According to reports, the cleaning work by workers began at 9 a.m. A pipe broke down, causing the workers to fall 10 feet into the manhole. Their bodies were recovered by a team of police, Fire Services personnel, and State disaster relief forces at around 1.30 p.m. Locals claimed the workers had been engaged by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Agency.

The Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Firhad Hakim visited the spot of the accident. “The water discharge from the factory had entered the manhole. After the discharge, gas was formed in the chamber, and the workers entered into the pit,” Mr. Hakim told journalists. The Mayor assured there would be an inquiry, and the lives of poor people could not be taken for granted.

The tragedy comes four days after the Supreme Court on January 29, 2025 ordered a complete stop to the practice of manual scavenging and hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in metros across the country. “We hereby order manual sewer cleaning and manual scavenging shall be stopped in all top metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” a Special Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar directed in a petition filed by Balram Singh.

This is not the first time that the death of sanitation workers has been reported in West Bengal. Four sanitation workers asphyxiated to death while working to improve sewerage operations at Kudghat, Kolkata on February 25, 2021. The operations were carried out through Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP), which aims to create a better water supply and sewerage operations in the city.