FBR – Frozen in 18th century
October 12, 2021
The cruelty and inhumanity that we extend
October 14, 2021

The plight of sanitary workers

We as citizens have been callous and insensitive towards the misery and cruelty  extended to thousands of  under-paid and exploited sanitary workers, working in over 100 Municipal Corporations and  Cantonment Boards of Pakistan.

Only in Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) there are 1700  sanitary workers,  on contract, working for the last 10 to 20 years. They are paid an illegal salary of Rs.14,000 pm as against the minimum wage of Rs 25,000 announced by the Sindh Government.  Then there are over 100 sanitary workers at  Hyderabad’s Water and Sewage Agency (WASA) who receive a paltry sum of Rs.10,000 pm.   Both the HMC and the WASA workers are registered neither with  EOBI nor with Social Security.

A similar situation prevails at Cantonment Boards, where except for Cantt Board Clifton, all other Cantonment Boards  pay less than the min wage announced by the federal Government.  In no Cantonment, the janitors working on contract or through 3rd party contractor are registered  with EOBI or Social Security.

Could the Sindh chief Minister (for Municipalities)  and the Defence Ministry (for  Cantonment Boards)  be requested to put an immediate end to this illegal and inhuman  treatment of the most downtrodden and deprived segment of our society.

Naeem Sadiq