'Manual scavenging': death toll of Indian sewer cleaners revealed

Eleven Indians have died this month while cleaning sewers or septic tanks without adequate safety gear

At least one Indian worker has died while cleaning sewers or septic tanks every five days since the beginning of 2017, according to the first official government statistics on the work, considered one of country's deadliest jobs and most insidious form of caste discrimination.

But activists and the National Commission for Safai Karamacharis (NCSK), the government agency that provided the data, say the real death rate is probably much higher - with many Indian authorities still undercounting the number of such workers in their state.