As per report a 25 year old man died on tuesday morning in chennai at the Express Avenue Mall after he entered a septic tank within the premises to rescue his brother. Meanwhile he was part of a crew of manual scavengers employed by a private agency to carry out this illegal work. Furthermore according to the police, a man named Dhandapani had taken five men Arunkumar, Ranjithkumar, Yuvaraj, Ajithkumar and Sreenath to Express Avenue Mall at 4 am to clean the septic tank.
Perhaps of the five, Ranjithkumar first entered the septic tank and was cleaning it when he fainted inside due to the poisonous gases. Meanwhile on seeing this, 25 year old Arunkumar, Ranjithkumar's brother, immediately jumped in to rescue him. Furthermore Arunkumar managed to get in and push his brother out. But by then, he was affected by the toxic fumes and died and his body is currently at the Royapettah government hospital for an autopsy.
Moreover Arunkumar's death adds to the state's list
of shame and highlights its inability to put an end to the inhumane practice of
manual scavenging. Apparently this information was released by the Union
minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment ramdas athawale in
february in lok sabha to a series of questions posed by Mullapally
Ramachandran, a congress mp from Kerala. Manual scavenging was outlawed in the
country in 1993 with the introduction of The Employment of Manual Scavengers
and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993. However, the practice
continues illegally throughout the country.
