Human Rights Commission Call for Justice and Policy Reform to Resolve Pakistan’s Sanitation Crisis

In Pakistan, a prominent Indian newspaper reports, caste and occupational hierarchies continue to be deeply ingrained, with sanitation jobs predominantly assigned to low-caste Hindus and Christians from minority communities that face caste-based as well as religious discrimination compounded by the indignity of job advertisements explicitly stating that such roles are reserved for non-Muslims.

In a November 23 article, The Times of India quotes the chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asad Iqbal Butt, as saying that more than 80 percent of Pakistan’s sanitation workers come from Hindu, Christian and other minority communities, even though these groups collectively make up less than 5 percent of the country’s population.

Sanitation work, often regarded as “unwanted,” is typically assigned in accordance with a religious hierarchy, Butt told the newspaper.  

In June 2024, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) released a comprehensive report on the conditions faced by sanitation workers, urging immediate policy action to ensure fair wages, collective bargaining rights, improved occupational safety, and protection from discrimination based on their work or descent. 

Titled Hazardous Matters: Examining the Right to Safe and Dignified Work for Sanitation Workers, the 34-page report highlights what the HRCP described in a news statement as a “key issue of concern”—the fact that sanitation workers are “often hired indirectly through contractors, which means that they earn wages at daily rates, are not entitled to paid leave and have no employment security or any medical or retirement benefits.”

The report adds that it is “also common for sanitation workers to receive wages below the legal minimum rate.”

The very fact that eight out of 10 sanitation workers belong to Pakistan’s Christian community and other minority faiths points to “historical and systemic discrimination,” the report points out.

“Throughout South Asia, sanitation work is deemed ‘low-caste’ work and people who engage in these tasks face discrimination on account of their caste and religion,” the report states.   

While the caste system is traditionally linked to Hinduism, caste- and occupation-based hierarchies continue to exist in Muslim-majority Pakistan, the report observes.

Referring to Hindu sanitation workers in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and most populous city that is home to some 20.3 million people, the report states: “They tend to be segregated from the rest of the Muslim-majority city in their occupation as well as their residence, with poor prospects for upward social mobility.”     

The report highlights that Pakistan’s national sanitation policy, in place since 2006, is now outdated and notably failed to address the specific concerns of sanitation workers.    

The report calls on federal and provincial governments to adopt policies regulating the working conditions of sanitation workers to ensure they receive the protections and benefits guaranteed under the Constitution and labor laws. It also urges local government bodies and authorities to implement these policies effectively. 

Besides eliminating the practice of hiring sanitation workers on daily wages, the report suggests that the workers—along with all laborers in the country—be paid at least a minimum wage. Social security and retirement benefits are among the report’s other recommendations.

In addition, partly because Pakistan’s sanitation workers carry out manual tasks without the aid of mechanization, the report suggests that workers or their families should be granted compensation in the event of work-related injuries and accidents, including those resulting from exposure to poisonous gases, solid waste and fecal sludge. In March and April 2024 alone, at least six sanitation workers lost their lives in work-related incidents while carrying out their duties, the report states.

Photo credits: Karachi sky line by Kashif Muhammad Farooq via Flickr. CC BY 2.0.