Our refusal to treat sanitation workers with dignity has once again claimed more lives as seven persons, including four sanitation workers, died after inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning sewer of a hotel in Vadodara district of Gujarat.

The incident happened on Saturday shortly after midnight at Darshan Hotel in Fartikui village of Dabhoi tehsil, around 30 kms from Vadodara city.

bccl/representational image

"The sanitation workers had been roped in to clean the sewer. When one worker failed to come out of the manhole, others went inside to check, but all of them died of asphyxiation," in-charge district collector Kiran Zaveri told PTI.

"We rushed to the site soon after learning about the incident and teams of the fire brigade from Vadodara Municipal Corporation and Dabhoi civic body launched rescue work. They took out the bodies of the deceased after three hours of efforts," he added.

Due to inhalation of toxic fumes inside the manhole, the workers fell unconscious and died, police said.

bccl/representational image

After the post-mortem, the bodies were handed over to the kin of the deceased.

The owner of the hotel, Hassan Abbas Ismail Boraniya, is absconding.

bccl/representational image

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government announced financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased.

Earlier this week Manhar Valjibhai Zala, chairperson, National Commission for Safai Karamcharis had said that around 801 sanitation workers have died while cleaning sewers in the country since 1993.

Most of these deaths were caused due to the inhalation of toxic gas as the sanitation workers are given little to no protective gears including masks and gloves.