With having been embarrassingly accounted for more deaths in India due to the inhuman practice of manual scavenging that recently claimed the life of a 25-year-old man who allegedly died while rescuing his brother who was fainted by the toxic gases while cleaning the septic tank in Express Avenue mall, Tamil Nadu's opposition leader and DMK President M K Stalin took his twitter account in urging to ban and to end the practice in the state.

On Wednesday, calling to end the practice, Stalin tweeted that about 206 people had died in Tamil Nadu since 1993 after affected by the toxic and poisonous gases and claimed that it was a shame for Tamil Nadu in getting spotted on the top of the table with more deaths while comparing to the other states. He asserted that the period includes the rule of DMK party and added that its high and important time that not only the government but everyone in the state must come together to put an end to the dehumanizing practice and he also demanded to develop the modern mechanisms and equipment to replace manual scavenging and to save precious human lives.

On Tuesday morning, when the 25-year-old, one among the five workers involved in cleaning the septic tank at the Express Avenue Mall, trying to rescue his brother from the septic tank has died due to the toxic gases. The initial inquiry has revealed that he was part of the group of manual scavengers who have been hired by a private agency to execute the illegal and inhumane work of removing human excreta, cleaning the drainages and septic tanks.

After seeing his brother being succumbed inside the tank, 25-year-old Arunkumar jumped into the tank to rescue and to recover his brother. After getting in the tank, Arunkumar had somehow let his brother out of the tank while he was severely affected by the gases that had claimed his life. After he passed away, his body was taken to Royapettah government hospital to perform the autopsy.

His death shockingly recalls the report released by the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athwale in Lok Sabha last February on the total deaths in the country caused due to manual scavenging. The state of Tamil Nadu tops the table for recording about 144 deaths in the last five years from 2013 to 2018 while Uttar Pradesh ranked second with 71 deaths that had shown Tamil Nadu has been accounted for with double the number of deaths in Uttar Pradesh. Through tabling the reports, the minister had stated that the state government of Tamil Nadu had awarded ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the victims in 141 cases.