Why a woman in Udaipur refused to strike a compromise after her husband died cleaning a septic tank

The man who had hired Sukhlal didn’t even visit the dead man’s home to inquire about his family. But he wanted them to withdraw their police complaint. Illustration: Krishna Balakrishnan. This article is part of India’s Dirty Secret, a series on manual scavenging and sewage worker deaths. Based on a study of the International Labour Organisation, Delhi, it…

As three Dalits lay dying from toxic fumes in an Agra sewer, no one would even give them water

Baby Valmiki recounts the death of her husband Raju and his two companions in 2012. Illustration: Krishna Balakrishnan This article is part of India’s Dirty Secret, a series on manual scavenging and sewage worker deaths. Based on a study of the International Labour Organisation, Delhi, it brings together stories of families whose members died during sewage cleaning, and…

A woman in MP recounts the trauma of watching her husband die in a tank full of faeces

Chinta Bai lost her son to a snakebite and her husband to the inexorable practice of manual scavenging. Chinta outside her one-room house This article is part of India’s Dirty Secret, a series on manual scavenging and sewage worker deaths. Based on a study of the International Labour Organisation, Delhi, it brings together stories of families whose members…