Legal activists' alliance condemns police crackdown on sanitation workers’ protests in Chennai and Madurai

By A Representative 

The National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR), a collective of lawyers, researchers and legal activists linked to the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has strongly condemned the police suppression of peaceful sanitation workers’ protests in Tamil Nadu. The alliance denounced what it described as violent crackdowns on sit-in demonstrations in Chennai on August 13 and in Madurai on August 18, where workers had gathered to press long-standing demands for fair wages, job security and resistance to privatisation.

According to NAJAR, nearly 2,000 sanitation workers from marginalised communities staged a peaceful protest for 13 days outside the Greater Chennai Corporation’s Ripon Building. Their agitation was forcibly disrupted in the early hours of August 14, when police evicted around 800 workers and detained several lawyers who were supporting them. The alliance said those detained were subjected to brutal treatment in custody. Despite public condemnation from civil society groups and political leaders, the Tamil Nadu police carried out a similar operation in Madurai on August 18, detaining workers engaged in a peaceful demonstration.

NAJAR highlighted that sanitation workers in Tamil Nadu have a long history of resistance, dating back to the 1946 strike in which police firing killed workers demanding fair wages. The 1973 and 1983 state-wide agitations eventually secured recognition of sanitation workers as government employees, but their rights, the alliance said, have been steadily eroded since the onset of privatisation in 1991. Most now work on insecure contracts with poor wages, facing arbitrary transfers to private contractors such as the Ramki Group, wage reductions, and denial of benefits.

The alliance said governments have repeatedly failed to implement favourable court rulings that directed statutory permanence, regularisation, housing support and recognition as government employees. Instead, the rights of sanitation workers have remained largely on paper while new generations are forced to restart the same struggles. NAJAR criticised what it called the cynical use of the “rule of law” to suppress legitimate protests, warning that the refusal of state officials and the Chennai Mayor to engage with workers reflected a serious disregard for democratic dialogue.

The organisation also expressed concern over a Madras High Court order directing the removal of workers without properly hearing their grievances, calling it a dangerous precedent for judicial handling of labour rights struggles. It pointed to a Habeas Corpus Petition filed in connection with the detention of workers and lawyers in Chennai, in which the Madras High Court observed that the detention of four lawyers and two law students “may be unlawful” and ordered their release.

NAJAR has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all detained workers in both Chennai and Madurai and called on the Tamil Nadu government to enter into good-faith negotiations with workers’ representatives. It has further urged accountability for officials responsible for the unlawful actions and appealed to the judiciary to protect constitutional freedoms rather than endorse repression.

In its statement, the alliance said the silencing of sanitation workers—whose labour keeps cities running—was an assault on the foundations of democracy. NAJAR reaffirmed its solidarity with the workers and vowed to continue pursuing all legal avenues to ensure justice.