Every morning, thousands of sanitary workers rise before dawn to descend into manholes and gutters across Pakistan. They are the unseen, underpaid custodians of public hygiene who ensure our cities stay clean, roads unclogged, and drains flowing. Yet while we sleep in comfort, their lives dangle by a fragile thread. With every passing day, their work becomes a wager between duty and death.

Recently, three sanitary workers in Karachi lost their lives due to toxic gas suffocation while cleaning an underground drainage line. They went down without oxygen cylinders, safety kits, or proper training — and never came back alive. Their deaths were settled with ₨800,000, valuing each life at barely ₨275,000. It is incomprehensible how a father, husband, or son can be reduced to such a small number. This is not mere negligence; it is a moral failure. This tragedy is not an isolated incident. Similar deaths have occurred across Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan — including a widely reported case in Umerkot, Sindh — yet no meaningful systemic reform has followed. Each time, the story ends the same way: a grieving family, a token settlement, and forgotten promises by apathetic municipal authorities.

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Most of these workers are not even government employees. They are hired through third-party contractors, caught in a web of political patronage and middlemen. The original employee on the government payroll rarely works; he sublets the job to a desperate labourer for a fraction of the salary. This chain of exploitation leaves the actual worker without medical insurance, legal protection, or fair pay.

Earning as little as Rs. 400–800 per day, these men — and sometimes women — clean........

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