NEW DELHI, Feb. 20 -- On 4 February this year, Bengaluru police booked five people after two men aged 25 and 29, employed to clean a sewage treatment plant at a suburban apartment were found dead under mysterious circumstances. On 6 February, Coimbatore police booked a contractor for allegedly engaging an elderly person to clean the septic tank of a public toilet situated inside a bus stand with bare hands. A 47-year-old man who was sent along with two more workers to clean the septic tank of a Chennai suburban residential complex comprising of some 270 flats collapsed immediately after coming out of it.

The above incidents clearly highlight how brazenly some unscrupulous elements seem to browbeat an existing Central law that bans manual...