DESCENDING into dirt, disease and uncertainty for a living is inhuman. Sanitation workers — the pillars of urban hygiene — often perish as poisonous gases fill their lungs. In eight months, 26 have died across the country. Karachi recorded eight losses, with 18 in Punjab. None of the workers were Muslim. In Pakistan, discrimination takes many forms. Among its most shameful manifestations have been job advertisements for sewerage management and garbage disposal. These have humiliated scores of underprivileged citizens with their ‘only Christians and Hindus may apply’ criteria — a practice banned by the Islamabad High Court. The Amnesty International and the Centre for Law & Justice report last year also highlighted the bigotry that stigmatises an essential service and creates social marginalisation. The call to do away with this practice at the recent Citizens Commission for Equality and Human Rights conference in Karachi deserves support. Compensation cannot persist as an escape for the government.

The situation has remained unchanged for years. The lack of protective gear and no health cover or stable employment mean we are normalising ‘disposability’ of vulnerable segments. The government is obligated under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and domestic labour laws to provide safe working conditions for the people. Manual scavenging violates fundamental freedoms and strips away human dignity, besides exposing the state’s utter disregard for its constitutional duties. In an age when modern machinery makes urban hygiene possible, why should individuals be made to risk their health and lives by descending into gutters? Those in power must be made to answer for the illness, harm and deaths inflicted on those who live on the fringes of society. Sadly, the deaths of workers who risk life and limb to make our environment livable are a reminder of our lost humanity.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2026