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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nNew Delhi: They left home Friday expecting a day\u2019s wage. Hours later, Arun<\/a>, Chand<\/a> and Sandeep<\/a> were brought to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital mortuary after dying inside a septic tank in Mundka, leaving behind wives, young children and elderly parents who depended entirely on their earnings.Outside the mortuary, relatives told TOI <\/span>of lives interrupted mid-dream \u2014 a son\u2019s birthday Chand was looking forward to, Arun\u2019s hope of one day moving his children to a private school, and Sandeep\u2019s pride over his daughter\u2019s recent admission to one.Muskan still doesn\u2019t know that her husband, Chand, had died inside the septic tank. “I don\u2019t have the courage to tell my daughter that she has lost her husband,” Heera, Muskan\u2019s mother, told TOI<\/span>. “Their elder son is only two years old and never leaves his father\u2019s side. This morning, when Chand was leaving for work, he kept saying, \u2018Papa, don\u2019t go.\u2019 Now he keeps asking where his father is.”The couple\u2019s younger son is just eight months old. Besides the elder son\u2019s birthday in a few months, their wedding anniversary was also approaching, said a relative. Chand was not the only breadwinner whose family was shattered. Standing outside the mortuary clutching a photograph of his younger brother on his phone, Narender could barely speak. Arun, who earned around Rs 10,000 a month, supported his wife and three young children, all under the age of six.\u201cFor an extra Rs 200 or Rs 300, he was sent inside the tank to clean the sludge,\u201d Narender said. \u201cThat little amount mattered to him because every rupee was for his children.\u201d The family had enrolled the children in a govt school, but Arun dreamt of earning enough to shift them to a private school one day. “I haven\u2019t had the heart to tell his wife what has happened,” Narender said.According to the family, Arun was not even assigned to enter the tank. The workers were operating suction machines to remove waste. When the pump failed to remove the sludge at the bottom, Chand was asked to climb inside. Arun later entered the tank to rescue him, but he, too, got trapped.Seeing both men collapse inside, Sandeep went in after them. “He has a 12-year-old daughter, and all he ever wanted was for her to keep studying so that she won\u2019t have to do the kind of work we have been forced into for generations because we are Valmikis,\u201d said his uncle, Surender (52). With years of savings, Sandeep recently admitted his daughter to a private school, hoping education would offer her a future beyond sanitation work. \u201cThat was his biggest dream,\u201d Surender said.His wife, meanwhile, is still waiting for answers. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t know anything yet. She just keeps asking what has happened,\u201d another relative said. \u201cWho will look after these families now?\u201d<\/div>\n