Urban management is a pressing issue as the urbanization trend continues globally. Due to the rising population, rapid urbanization and depleting groundwater tables, sewage management is both, a challenge and an integral component of sustainable development in India. Around 7,000 urban towns do not have any sewerage system. Management of sewers is generally undertaken manually by sanitation workers which is hazardous, denigrating, socially condescended upon and discriminatory. According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), the number of people who died while cleaning sewers was 110 in 2019 and 631 people died in the country in the last 10 years as per the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK). The spatial pattern of deaths is paradoxical as Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of such deaths followed by Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The manual involvement of humans in sewage management has to be reduced for sustainable development in India.