Seeking protection for India's sewage cleaners

Indian women sanitation workers gather at Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi to protest against death in the dangerous work of cleaning septic tanks and drains. The #StopKillingUs campaign was organised by the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a women workers’ movement. Photos: Sunrita Sen/dpa

Sher Singh is barely 50. He wheezes as he tries to sit up in the tiny, rented room in a suburb of the Indian capital of New Delhi.

A little over three years ago, Singh climbed into a 10ft (3m) deep septic tank – a concrete chamber where the untreated filth of toilets collect – to clear a blockage.