The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation (KWSC), the local government secretary and others on a petition seeking the protection of all sanitation workers in the province.
Arif Hasan and other petitioners said that the practice of manual scavenging by sanitation workers entering the raw sewage gutters persists. Moreover, they added, private persons are also hired to clean the manholes by entering the gutters, compromising their safety and health.
They said that sanitation workers are routinely compelled to enter hazardous sewage gutters without protective equipment, exposing themselves to poisonous gases, toxic substances and life-threatening conditions that frequently result in serious injury or death.
Despite the availability of modern mechanical technology capable of eliminating the need of manual scavenging, the government authorities have failed to prohibit this dangerous and inhumane practice, they added.
They also said that sanitation workers, many of whom belong to marginalised and religious minority communities, are often hired on daily wages or informal arrangements and required to manually clean sewage lines with bare hands and without safety gear.
They highlighted several tragic incidents in Karachi, Hyderabad, Port Qasim and Tando Mohammad Khan, where sanitation workers lost their lives while cleaning gutters and sewerage drains.
They also referred to the incident that had occurred in Karachi’s Usmanabad, where George Masih and two other teenaged sanitation workers died after entering a gutter filled with poisonous gases.
They said the KWSC and other authorities direct sanitation workers to manually clear the blocked gutters without any safety equipment or rescue mechanism. No criminal proceedings or investigations are initiated after such incidents, while the families of the deceased are informally compensated to avoid accountability, they added.
They also said that international bodies discourage manual scavenging as well, and require the use of mechanical cleaning methods and strict safety protocols. The KWSC and other authorities are under legal and constitutional obligations to ensure safe sanitation practices and to protect sanitation workers from hazardous employment conditions, they added.
They requested the court to declare the practice of entering the gutters and sewerage drains without safety kits a violation of fundamental rights, and to direct the government to adopt policies that protect the fundamental rights of all sanitation workers, including their right to work in safe conditions.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Adnanul Karim Memon issued notices to the KWSC, the LG authorities and others, telling them to file their comments in the next hearing.
