Think you've got a bad job? Indian 'sewer diver' paid just £3.50 a day (plus a bottle of booze) to unclog Delhi's drains

If you think your job is the pits then spare a thought for Devi Lal.

The 'sewer diver' from Delhi, India, is paid a measly £3.50 a day to wallow in filth unclogging the city's drains.

Devi, 43, is provided with a bottle of bootleg booze to dull his senses before he begins his odious chore.

Dirty job: Devi Lal, a sewer diver from Delhi is paid a measly £3.50 a day to unclog the city's filthy drains

Scandalously the city does not bother to provide protective clothing so Devi and his colleagues are forced to spend hours a day in the filthy water in just their underwear.

According to Harnam Singh, the chairman of the Delhi Safai Karamchari Commision, (Delhi cleaners commission) almost 70 per cent of the manual scavengers die on the job.



An estimated 61 sewer divers have died in last six months alone.

Scandalously City bosses do not provide protective clothing and Devi, 43, works in just a pair of pants

Wallowing in filth: Devi Lal, 43, works to unclog blocked drains in Delhi, India

Even though India banned the practise in 1993, government agencies still use thousands of people like Dev to clean drains through out India

Even though India banned the practice in 1993, government agencies still use thousands of manual scavengers to clean drains through out India.



India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. But poverty remains widespread with an estimated 42.5 per cent of the children suffering from malnutrition.

According to 2010 data from the United Nations Development Programme, an estimated 37.2 per cent of Indians live below the national poverty line with 68.7 per cent surviving on less than $2 a day.



Earlier this week Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced his country will be spending £52 million on a space mission to Mars.

Tragic: An estimated 61 sewer divers have died in last six months alone







