New Delhi: The government told Parliament on July 21, that there had been 332 sanitation worker deaths reported due to hazardous sewer and septic tank cleaning between January 2021 and June 2026. The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale in a written reply in Lok Sabha said that 193 FIRs had been registered in the past five years against agencies and officials for hazardous manual cleaning.Government data has been strongly rebutted by the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), a civil society organisation which works amongst those working in sanitation and who mostly hail from the most oppressed castes has an index for measuring the deaths of manual workers in India. Bezwada Wilson, a Ramon Magsaysay award winner and the convenor of SKA said that there have been an excessive 261 sewer and septic tank deaths this year which he said, the government has concealed. Why Government hiding 261 sewer and septic tank deaths ?593 persons were killed in Sewer & septic tanks, from January 2021 till date, but the Government has reported only 332 sewer and septic tank deaths to Parliament, this injustice can’t be tolerated . #stopkillingus pic.twitter.com/B5Yl2q8BQf— Bezwada Wilson (@BezwadaWilson) July 27, 2026“Why [is the] Government hiding 261 sewer and septic tank deaths? 593 persons were killed in Sewer & septic tanks, from January 2021 till date, but the Government has reported only 332 sewer and septic tank deaths to Parliament, this injustice can’t be tolerated.”Bezwada Wilson has asked the prime minister to “acknowledge this failure and take immediate action”. The SKA says it has had several meetings with MPs to address the concern of minimising deaths and said it was “a matter of national shame and an act of untouchability that instead of stopping deaths, the government is only focussed on obscuring the truth.” The Andolan has asked for a time-bound Parliamentary Standing Committee Inquiry into these.The government in parliament had said while giving out the numbers, that it reaffirms “its commitment to the complete eradication of manual scavenging through strict enforcement of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013), rehabilitation of affected persons and promotion of mechanised sanitation systems.”The Act came into force on December 6, 2013, and prohibits the employment or engagement of any person as a manual scavenger and provides stringent penal provisions for violations.Bezwada Wilson said the government must acknowledge the failure of the NAMASTE scheme, started to ostensibly address this problem. He said deaths has only risen after this initiative was put in place.The lack of safety gear, precautions or any sensitivity towards people of mostly a certain caste group going down sewers and septic tanks has been raised by activists and worker groups for some time now.