The Delhi High Court has sought the stand of the government and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking regularisation of all contractual sewer workers as permanent employees.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia recently issued a notice to the authorities on the petition by Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch and sought a response from them in six weeks.
The plea said DJB has thousands of contractual sewer workers, who come from the most marginalised and economically weaker sections of society and are engaged on a purely contractual basis without any security of tenure or statutory benefits such as provident fund, gratuity or bonus.
The plea asserted that these workers perform “hazardous duties” that expose them to “grave risks to life, health and human dignity”, and their working conditions are “worse than slave labour or bonded labour”.
Highlighting that 300 sewer workers died on duty in Delhi in the last 10 years, the plea submitted that the system was exploitative and the contractual workers received payment below the minimum wages.
