 The Union Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar has claimed that there have been no manual scavenging deaths in the country. As he said, there is no report of death due to manual scavenging. However, we have reports regarding deaths of workers while being engaged in cleaning of sewers or septic tanks. So this is a play in definition that the minister is trying to engage at. It's not only Virendra Kumar who has said this, but Nagam Minister Ramda Tatavle has said the exact same thing. There have been no deaths due to manual scavenging. However, there have been many deaths, 900 plus, due to sewer deaths or in septic tanks. So what the BJP government is trying to prove by this? These deaths are reported under in the Prevention of Manual Scavenging Act. So yet the government is trying to claim that there have been no manual scavenging deaths. It is quite unclear as to what the government is trying to prove by this. What we are trying to say here is that there have been many deaths that have been reported as manual scavenging deaths. Tamil Nadu itself is one of the top states in these deaths and Newsclick has been reporting many of them. Here are some of the deaths that Newsclick had reported in the past three years. Let us take a close look at one of these reports, one that was published on 4th July 2020. Two to con, four huge die of asphyxiation while cleaning septic tank. The Tattaparai police station has registered an FIR against the owner of the house who employed the manual scavengers. He has also been booked under section 8-9 of the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavenger and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 and section 3-1-J of the Schedule Caste and Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989. Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edapadit K. Palisami has actually provided compensation of 10 lakhs for each of these families who lost one of their members. Let us take an opinion from Deepthi Sukumar, one of the core team members of the 5 Karamchari Andolan, which works amongst manual scavenging for the rehabilitation of their livelihoods. So if you see over the last few responses that have come in the parliament, the table in the parliament is that Tamil Nadu has got the highest number of deaths in the country. Now, even now in this, if you see that we have documented about 500 deaths still date and when the minister made the statement, we had not yet counted this year's deaths to the last year. So the last was 470 deaths with air in that 69 were from Tamil Nadu, 69 deaths were from Tamil Nadu itself. And that is only what SKA has counted and if you see for every death, there definitely will be at least four or five deaths that were hidden, invisible and have never come to the light. Because these, you cannot be everywhere. There are septic tanks, millions of septic tanks all across the country in very small streets in by lanes everywhere. Everywhere, you know, there are people are going down and cleaning the septic tank. You cannot, everywhere you cannot, people are not going to see and come out and come and report. So there are so many deaths that I'm sure that are going unreported. So just counted and visible, these are all reported in the media and come to the, exposed to the government. 69 deaths in Tamil Nadu. Every death has to be counted as a death under the manual scavenging act. And for the last one or two years, every death is also being filed under the manual scavenging act because we are all the 69 deaths we are making. We are trying to go and making efforts in the with the police and with the with the government, but they must be filed under manual scavenging act. And if it is a schedule cast or a schedule track, it is also filed under the SCST atrocities act also. Till date, although there are 500 deaths since the Supreme Court order has come out and since the we have our manual scavenging prohibition act 2013, not a single conviction has been made. The last five years, 500 deaths have happened, not a single conviction has been made. 69 deaths have happened, not a single conviction has been made. Charge sheets have not been filed. It has only been up to the FIR level and then the 10 lakhs is given and then the family is kind of silenced. Everybody is silenced and after that because of this 10 lakhs being given, there is a kind of a co-opted, you know, co-opting environment that happens. So everything becomes closed and it is all covered up. The state government itself has provided compensation for manual scavenging deaths. Yet the government of India is denying that there have been manual scavenging deaths. What does this imply?