Two sanitation workers suffocated to death inside a sewer in Indore in the first week of March, a city that proudly carries the title of India's cleanest.
On a March evening around 6:30 pm near Choithram Mandi Gate, municipal sanitation workers had arrived with a suction tanker to clean a sewer line. During the operation, a piece of pipe from the suction machine reportedly fell inside the sewer tank.
To retrieve it, a municipal worker named Karan climbed down into the chamber. Inside the tank, toxic gases had accumulated. Within moments, Karan began suffocating and collapsed inside the chamber. Seeing him fall unconscious, another worker, Ajay, rushed in to rescue him. But Ajay also collapsed. By the time rescue teams arrived and pulled them out, both sanitation workers were dead.
Police and SDRF teams later conducted a rescue operation, and two others, another sanitation worker and a local citizen who had tried to help, were pulled out safely. But the incident has triggered uncomfortable questions.
Why were workers allowed to enter a sewer chamber without gas detection equipment? Why were there no oxygen masks, harnesses or protective gear?
And why, according to eyewitnesses, did emergency help take nearly two hours to arrive?
Eyewitness Amit Rajak said locals desperately tried to save the workers themselves. "Neither the police nor the municipal corporation arrived for almost two hours. There was nothing we could do. The workers had entered the chamber without safety equipment," he said.
According to Additional DCP Sumit Kerkatta, the two sanitation workers lost consciousness due to toxic gas while inspecting the sewer chamber. Police, SDRF teams and local residents later pulled them out.
But the larger crisis runs far deeper than this single accident.
Government records show that tens of thousands of workers in Madhya Pradesh are dying during their working years.
Labour department figures reveal that over 60,000 worker deaths every year are recorded under the state's Sambal welfare scheme, which provides financial assistance to families of dead labourers.
The deaths span construction sites, factories, farms and hazardous jobs like sanitation work.
In 2024-25 alone, the state recorded about 57,000 natural deaths and 5,800 accidental deaths among workers aged between 18 and 60. These deaths are particularly alarming because the average life expectancy in the state is around 67 years, yet thousands of workers never reach that age.
Recognising the seriousness of the problem, the Labour Department has now written to all district collectors directing them to introduce preventive health measures, workplace safety enforcement and regular health monitoring of workers.
The government has asked districts to organise health camps, regular medical screening for blood pressure, diabetes and heart risk, and safety awareness programmes across industrial areas, construction sites, brick kilns and agricultural workplaces. Strict compliance with workplace safety standards and protective equipment has also been emphasised.
But labour rights activists say sanitation workers remain among the most vulnerable. Despite laws prohibiting unsafe manual entry into sewer chambers, workers are still routinely sent inside toxic tanks without protective gear.
