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Each year, when rains lash Mumbai, one group of people are crucial to helping prevent flooding in the city. These are the stormwater drain workers, who toil to desilt the city’s drains. Most travel from elsewhere in Maharashtra, and other states, carry out this work for a few months and then return home.

But though their work is vital for the city, as Nolina Minj found, the BMC’s engagement of these workers contravenes several laws and rules. Among these is the law that prohibits manual scavenging. Activists note that the work should be categorised as such because sewage mingles with Mumbai’s stormwater, in violation of another law.

“Some of the most egregious human rights violations occur in Mumbai on its public streets, in broad daylight,” Minj said. “While I had noticed workers cleaning roadside stormwater drains before, I was not aware that sewage waste also flows into the city’s stormwater drainage system.”

She added that it was particularly alarming that “babies and toddlers accompany their parents to their work sites – a deadly environment for young children.”

You can read the story here.

The hidden lives of those who protect Mumbai from floods

Every year, in violation of various laws and rules, thousands of workers are hired to desilt drains that carry a mix of stormwater and sewage.

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Ajay Krishnan,
Senior Editor