Zürcher Nachrichten - Pipe dreams: Pakistan sewage workers hope for better future

EUR -
AED 4.325935
AFN 82.295246
ALL 97.926243
AMD 452.928874
ANG 2.108041
AOA 1080.157743
ARS 1450.537772
AUD 1.798908
AWG 2.12321
AZN 2.007149
BAM 1.955925
BBD 2.378252
BDT 144.489211
BGN 1.956381
BHD 0.443228
BIF 3509.023701
BMD 1.177925
BND 1.500096
BOB 8.139519
BRL 6.38271
BSD 1.177875
BTN 100.523408
BWP 15.600995
BYN 3.854646
BYR 23087.331819
BZD 2.365951
CAD 1.603098
CDF 3398.314319
CHF 0.935405
CLF 0.028538
CLP 1095.129815
CNY 8.440309
CNH 8.439249
COP 4689.39895
CRC 594.837921
CUC 1.177925
CUP 31.215015
CVE 110.27203
CZK 24.646321
DJF 209.743371
DKK 7.461454
DOP 70.494494
DZD 152.109697
EGP 58.022699
ERN 17.668876
ETB 163.469121
FJD 2.637615
FKP 0.863276
GBP 0.862601
GEL 3.204416
GGP 0.863276
GHS 12.190777
GIP 0.863276
GMD 84.22618
GNF 10215.651249
GTQ 9.056577
GYD 246.42571
HKD 9.2463
HNL 30.773962
HRK 7.536412
HTG 154.649859
HUF 399.203326
IDR 19062.0084
ILS 3.939983
IMP 0.863276
INR 101.068035
IQD 1542.998366
IRR 49620.09495
ISK 142.446936
JEP 0.863276
JMD 188.001985
JOD 0.835195
JPY 170.275556
KES 152.179701
KGS 103.010002
KHR 4732.301685
KMF 492.373101
KPW 1060.088497
KRW 1605.924627
KWD 0.359609
KYD 0.981663
KZT 611.718997
LAK 25381.61808
LBP 105536.527962
LKR 353.392529
LRD 236.165056
LSL 20.719221
LTL 3.478107
LVL 0.712516
LYD 6.344404
MAD 10.572174
MDL 19.841265
MGA 5300.337897
MKD 61.533923
MMK 2472.967489
MNT 4223.442545
MOP 9.523607
MRU 46.74898
MUR 52.948179
MVR 18.14445
MWK 2042.530211
MXN 21.952406
MYR 4.972067
MZN 75.340533
NAD 20.719221
NGN 1802.15516
NIO 43.342763
NOK 11.864468
NPR 160.837253
NZD 1.944493
OMR 0.452069
PAB 1.177875
PEN 4.176666
PGK 4.86531
PHP 66.570482
PKR 334.365716
PLN 4.243888
PYG 9386.598396
QAR 4.304974
RON 5.059075
RSD 117.187471
RUB 92.85592
RWF 1693.207942
SAR 4.416905
SBD 9.820272
SCR 16.592058
SDG 707.348348
SEK 11.256846
SGD 1.500092
SHP 0.925664
SLE 26.444855
SLL 24700.50455
SOS 673.142913
SRD 44.036774
STD 24380.6712
SVC 10.306657
SYP 15315.211479
SZL 20.70332
THB 38.118091
TJS 11.45473
TMT 4.134517
TND 3.431819
TOP 2.758823
TRY 46.955033
TTD 7.988509
TWD 34.086841
TZS 3109.79825
UAH 49.123132
UGX 4225.269361
USD 1.177925
UYU 47.273014
UZS 14790.942924
VES 128.951587
VND 30838.07893
VUV 140.323223
WST 3.056689
XAF 655.99882
XAG 0.031783
XAU 0.000353
XCD 3.183402
XDR 0.815852
XOF 655.99882
XPF 119.331742
YER 285.234989
ZAR 20.722353
ZMK 10602.74357
ZMW 28.533819
ZWL 379.291399
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Pipe dreams: Pakistan sewage workers hope for better future
Pipe dreams: Pakistan sewage workers hope for better future

Pipe dreams: Pakistan sewage workers hope for better future

Nearly naked and covered with a black, foul-smelling muck, Shafiq Masih struggles out of a sewer he has just cleaned by hand in an upmarket district of Lahore, Pakistan's second biggest city.

Text size:

Every day the 44-year-old descends into the city's sewers, braving toxic gases emitted by excrement, pollutants and other waste, to manually unblock the drains of the city.

"When someone goes down, they have to sacrifice all self-respect," he told AFP.

"People go to the toilet, flush the toilet, and all the dirt gets dumped on us."

Like the vast majority of sanitation workers in Pakistan, Shafiq is a Christian, and doing a job that comes with strong social stigma -- one considered impure by many Muslims.

Even in death there is no dignity.

In 2017 Muslim doctors sparked outrage and protests in Umerkot when they refused to treat a Christian sewage worker overcome by toxic gases, saying they could not touch his soiled body because they had to remain pure during Ramadan.

- Caste discrimination -

Most Christians in Pakistan are descendants of lower-caste Hindus who converted during the British colonial era in the hope of escaping a system that frequently forced them into a life of toil almost from birth.

They make up less than two percent of the population, but occupy more than 80 percent of jobs involving refuse collection, sewage work and street sweeping, according to figures cited regularly by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The remainder are filled mostly by Hindus, another tiny community in the Muslim-majority nation.

Even though the caste system doesn't officially exist in Pakistan, it persists in these occupations, experts say.

The word "chuhra", traditionally used to describe those working in the sanitation industry -- and considered extremely derogatory -- is now synonymous with being a Christian.

Institutionalised discrimination is also rampant: some job adverts from public bodies have specified menial cleaning jobs are reserved for "non-Muslims", with the Centre for Law and Justice, a local NGO, identifying nearly 300 such announcements over the past decade.

The NCHR has recently launched a campaign to protest against this practice.

- Immense risks -

Like much of Pakistan, the drains in Lahore -- a city of 11 million -- are routinely unclogged with a long bamboo stick. If this doesn't work, someone has to go in.

For doing this, and after 22 years of service, Shafiq receives just 44,000 rupees ($240) a month -- still, almost double the salary of street sweepers and garbage collectors.

But the associated risks are immense with infections including tuberculosis and hepatitis common, as well as skin and eye diseases.

Accidents also happen frequently.

At least ten people have died since 2019 in Pakistani sewers, according to the Centre for Law and Justice (CLJ), a local NGO which says the figures are probably far higher than reported.

In October in Sargodha, two Christian sewage workers died rescuing a third who had been forced by his Muslim supervisors to enter a sewer he knew to be full of poisonous gas.

Their families filed a complaint of criminal negligence -- a first in Pakistan -- but agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

"When you go to work, you are never sure you will get home," said Shahbaz Masih, 32, who was once overcome by fumes in the sewer before being revived in hospital.

- State exploitation -

Industry insiders say companies responsible for the city contracts take advantage of worker illiteracy and disorganisation to pay them monthly salaries of under 10,000 rupees (50 euros) -- less than half the legal minimum.

"The state is directly responsible for this exploitation," says Mary James Gill, a Pakistani lawyer and politician who heads the CLJ and received the 2021 Human Rights Award from France for her "Sweepers are Superheroes" campaign.

"From their recruitment to their death, we have clear and undeniable evidence that they are discriminated against by society and the state."

Gill says there is a vicious circle, with poverty preventing many Christians from providing an education for their children, who have no choice but to turn to the same occupation.

Shafiq knows that he is not about to be promoted and leave the sewers.

Still, every day he "thanks God for another day to live".

H.Roth--NZN