05 June 2018

Pakistan: Deaths of Christian sewage workers highlight discrimination and injustice

Two Christians have died while cleaning a sewer in Pakistan. The deaths of Saqib Masih (19) and Mushtaq Masih (45) once again highlight the way in which Christians in Pakistan are deprived of education, protection and decent, dignified work.

Joshua
Open Doors Team

What do you do for a living? Doctor? Lawyer? Teacher? Accountant? Engineer? Policeman?

Christians in the UK and Ireland follow many careers. But for Christians in other parts of the world, the career path is much more narrow. And it leads down into some very dark, and very dangerous places.

‘No help arrived’

Early in the morning of Wednesday 23 May nineteen-year-old Saqib Masih and Mushtaq Masih, 45, were called in by their supervisor and given the job of opening a blocked sewer in the Pakistani town of Chichawatni, in Bahawalnagar district in the Punjab.

Like the majority of sewage workers in Pakistan, both men were Christians.

Saqib was not an employee and would only expect to receive 500 Pakistani rupees (about £3.75) for his 12 hours’ work. Mushtaq had officially retired, but as his remaining salary and a retirement gratuity had not been paid – he had filed a lawsuit over this – he was still coming in to work on a daily basis.

They didn’t have any protective clothing.

“First Saqib went down and opened one side of the clogged pipeline,” said Rashid Masih, a Christian councillor from the area. “But as soon the line was cleared poisonous gases in the pipeline for months started leaking into the gutter and Saqib quickly fell unconscious.

“Then Mushtaq went down but he also fell unconscious. We called rescue services, but no help arrived. Another Christian, Gamma, tied a water-soaked handkerchief over his mouth, went down and brought out both the unconscious men. We took them to hospital where they were pronounced dead.”

A world of filth and danger

In Pakistan, many Christians are forced to do the kind of jobs which are deemed ‘unclean’. One of the worst is cleaning the sewers – a job that Muslims refuse to do. Indeed, the word for low caste - chuhra - is a derogatory term reserved for sanitary workers and often used in Pakistan synonymously for 'Christian'.

The figures are startling. According to data collected by World Watch Monitor, Pakistani Christians comprise only 1.5 per cent of the population, but they account for more than 80 per cent of the sewerage and street cleaning workforce.

And to be a sewer worker in Pakistan is to be plunged – literally – into a world of filth and danger. Often a cleaner has to hold his breath and dive into the filthy blackwater sewage to remove a blockage. Many workers die. Many more suffer chronic illnesses, paralysed, their nervous systems destroyed by the toxic gases.

In January, a Christian man died in Karachi when he was cleaning a sewer. And a year ago, an unconscious Christian sewage worker died when a succession of doctors refused to touch him because he would make them ‘unclean’ during Ramadan.

Demonstrations and protests

There were demonstrations following the deaths.

“The civil administration assured us of support,” said Rashid. “They arranged for the funerals and also provided 250,000 Pakistani rupees (c. £1,600). We are struggling to ensure that now the bereaved families be given a pension as their children are still young,” said Rashid.

It is small consolation. And it does nothing to address the deeper issue: the way in which Christians in Pakistan are denied opportunities for education and employment. The way in which they are forced into dangerous, badly paid work. The way in which the sewer is seen as the only fit place for these 'chuhra' - these Christians.

Working through local partners, Open Doors supports Christians in Pakistan with emergency relief and medical aid. But we also help them access education and training – our partners have taught over 100,000 people to read and write in Pakistan, including the young woman in this video.

Education is one way in which the lives of Pakistan’s beleaguered Christians can be changed. It offers them a different path, away from the darkness and death and towards dignity, hope and life.