How regulatory gaps turn sanitation work deadly

In May 2025, a septic pit attached to a house in Tavarekere village in Sira taluk, Tumakuru, had to be emptied after 12 years. A suction machine operator quoted ₹20,000, saying the hardened sludge would take hours to remove. The house owner, an employee at a government hospital, instead contacted Rangappa, a 55-year-old agricultural labourer who occasionally undertook pit cleaning work in the area. He and two other daily wage labourers agreed to do the work for ₹7,500.

On May 26 and 27, the three entered the nearly eight-foot pit and removed the waste. By the evening of May 27, Rangappa developed breathlessness. Over the next week, his family took him to six hospitals. The family spent close to ₹70,000. Rangappa, who was not recorded as a manual scavenger, died at home on June 2. An FIR was registered on the same day at Tavarekere police station.