India, Sept. 5 -- The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to identify within six months every person who has died while cleaning sewers or septic tanks and pay Rs.30 lakh in compensation to their families.

A division bench of justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said that despite beneficial enactments and various Government Resolutions (GRs) issued to prohibit manual scavenging and protect sewer workers, implementation was "miserably lacking".

"In the 21st century, we boast about reaching the other side of the moon, yet the hard reality that stares us in the face is that the social evil of the caste system is still followed in our country, which forces some of our citizens to do work that is below human d...