On March 22, 2018, a shroud of fear and anxiety enveloped M. Manikyala Rao as he wearily made his way home. He had just returned from a demonstration held in connection with the death of a co-worker who had entered the perilous depths of a manhole in Vambay colony, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Rao, a contract employee with the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) had been working as a drain cleaner since 2015, and was aware of the horrors lurking beneath the manholes. But unlettered and trapped by circumstance, he continued to risk his life in a job he had no choice but to cling to.
Today, over five years later, his wife M. Yashoda, is getting into the habit of picking fully bloomed hibiscus flowers every morning, outside her two-room house in Nunna, near Vijayawada. She will string them together into a garland and place them across Rao’s photo, which hangs on a wall of the main room.
Rao died on July 15 this year, allegedly due to asphyxiation after entering a manhole in Badavapeta area. He was 44. He did not have on any protective gear.
