Sanitary workers who?

If there is any workforce most expendable in Pakistan it is the sanitation workers. The inhumane conditions they are made to work in, that too for a paltry sum of money scream ‘criminal’ and ‘unjust’. These workers mostly comprise daily wage earners who belong to the Christian community. Considering Pakistan’s poor track record of safeguarding human rights – let alone of those belonging to religious minorities – to hail from underprivileged households is a double whammy. It is like being born with a death sentence. And this death sentence holds truer for sanitary workers than for any other workforce. The most recent example of this criminal neglect is the deaths by suffocation of three sanitation workers in Tando Mohammad Khan of Sindh province on Tuesday; a fourth was admitted to the hospital in critical condition. As per reports, the bodies of the deceased were recovered by an activist of an NGO, and not the local authorities.

Made to climb down sewers filled with poisonous gases without any personal protective equipment or oxygen, Pakistan’s sanitary workers face life-threatening conditions daily. Add to it the dismal state that our rescue services and infrastructure are in and you have a recipe for death and disaster. In some cases, it has taken days – not hours – for their bodies to be recovered. The most infamous of these cases was of 31-year-old Babar Masih’s whose body was found 12 days after he was swept away in a flash surge while cleaning a sewer in Karachi. These workers risk their health and lives to perform a job that is essential yet grossly undervalued and ignored by authorities. The lack of proper equipment and safety measures is not only a blatant disregard for their well-being but also a stark reminder of the systemic inequalities and neglect that persist in our society.