Calcutta High Court Orders Compensation for 2021 Kolkata Manual Scavenging Deaths

The Calcutta High Court has ordered the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and state authorities to pay compensation to the families of four workers who died and three who were injured while cleaning a sewer line in Kolkata in 2021.

The court found that the authorities were responsible for the incident, which happened because the workers inhaled toxic fumes.

The court ordered Rs 30 lakh to be paid to each of the deceased workers' families and Rs 5 lakh to each of the injured workers.

The court also criticized the authorities for not having proper monitoring mechanisms in place to prevent such incidents.

Manual scavenging, which is the practice of cleaning sewers by hand, is banned in India, but it still happens in some places.