KARACHI: Nearly a third of the city’s labourers, who work in industries and live in low-income neighbourhoods, face between 18 and 20 hours of power cuts each day, with some even experiencing blackouts lasting more than 20 hours, making daily life increasingly unbearable, says a study launched by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) at the office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday.

The study’s key findings show that loadshedding disrupts work and reduces productivity as many workers remain unable to sleep properly due to the heat and lack of electricity, which affects their performance and income.

Financial pressure at home also grows, which leads to domestic violence as well as stress and other mental illnesses. Moreover, stagnant water and extreme heat increase the risk of mosquitoes and heat-related illnesses.

Together, these problems are pushing vulnerable families deeper into poverty and creating a vicious cycle that is hard to escape.

Piler study recommends workers’ welfare fund to provide off-grid solar energy systems for low-income households

The report, based on direct surveys and focus group discussions across Baldia Town, Korangi, Landhi, Ibrahim Hyderi and Orangi Town, paints a severe picture of a labour force trapped between a worsening climate crisis and a broken energy system.

Abbas Haider, director of Piler, said the findings reflect decades of policy failure. “For too long, the cost of this city’s energy crisis has been paid by its poorest workers,” he said. “While K-Electric applies its heaviest loadshedding schedules to the feeders where labourers live, those same workers are losing sleep, income, and their health. This is not misfortune — it is a consequence of how the system is designed.”

The study also found that 59 per cent of surveyed households earn below the legal minimum wage of Rs40,000 per month, a figure that is itself less than half of the estimated living wage of Rs103,772.

Some 13 per cent of participants were unemployed at the time of the survey.

Of Karachi’s approximately 10,000 factories, most employ workers on informal or piece-rate contracts, which means the vast majority have no access to social security, no medical cover and no pension.

Asim Bashir Khan, researcher and author of the study, said the consequences of chronic loadshedding ripple far beyond discomfort. “What we documented is a cascade of harm,” he said.

“Workers arrive at factories already exhausted from sleepless, sweltering nights. Without fans or cooling, children cannot study and families cannot sleep. Water motors stop working, which means no water for drinking or sanitation. The spread of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria increases. Workplace accidents rise. Domestic violence rises. These are not separate problems; they all flow from the same source,” he added.

The study documents that 80pc of Sindh’s workers fall entirely outside the social security net administered by the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), largely because registration thresholds exclude piece-rate and informal workers. More than 90pc of labour contractors are not registered with the Sindh Revenue Board, further compounding the gap between law and practice.

The study also proposes a solution. It says that between fiscal years 2016-17 and 2024-25, the Sindh Workers’ Welfare Fund collected Rs28.33 billion and the Sindh Workers’ Profit Participation Fund collected Rs50.55bn. It recommends earmarking a portion of these funds to establish a Sindh Solarisation Endowment Fund for Labourers, which could finance off-grid solar installations for over 94,000 labourer households at an estimated cost of Rs300,000 per unit.

It terms the proposal as designed to be realistic within Pakistan’s constrained fiscal environment. “We are not asking for new money. The Workers’ Welfare Fund exists precisely to improve the lives of labourers. We are asking that it be used for that purpose. Off-grid solarisation would reduce the cost of living for poor households, build resilience against climate change, and could attract international climate finance because it is a green investment. The government of Sindh has the tools. What is needed now is the political will,” Mr Haider pointed out.

Asad Iqbal Butt, chairperson of the HRCP, said 45pc of Pakistan’s population is living below the poverty line. “The minimum wage must be raised to Rs75,000 if we are serious about giving workers a decent life. Yet 80pc of workers do not even receive the current minimum wage. The state has failed to implement its own laws and its own policies,” he added.

Habibudin Junaidi, senior trade unionist and leader of the Peoples Labour Bureau, also spoke.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2026