At 26, advocate Isha Singh has the grit of a “people’s lawyer”. Singh, who is daughter of former IPS officer YP Singh and lawyer Abha Singh, both well-known activists, has spent the last two years fighting the cause of widows, Vimla Govind Chorotiya, Neeta Santosh Kalshekar and Baani Bishwajeet Debnath. The three lost their husbands in an incident on December 23, 2019, after they got trapped inside a septic tank at the Morya Society in Govandi. The trio, based on police reports, were hired to clear a clog in the drainage tank. Incidentally, just a few days before this mishap, the Bombay High Court had heard a PIL filed by Singh, which highlighted that though manual scavenging has been banned in India under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the practice continues unhindered. Both these events set the ball rolling for a milestone judgment last week, when the HC directed the Maharashtra government to pay R10 lakh compensation to the three women.  

In the meantime, Singh has become a sister, friend, and guide to the group. Vimla and Neeta, who we meet at her office in Fort, say, if it were not for her, they wouldn’t have known of their legal right to compensation.