Islamabad is a perhaps one of the cleanest cities of Pakistan; its streets are regularly swept; its drains and sewers rarely overflow; domestic trash is dutifully picked up from house fronts and deposited in garbage bins and the bins in turn are emptied regularly by garbage trucks.
Hardly visible to the citizens of the country, along with the garbage and dirt they take care of, is an army of red-uniformed sanitary workers employed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to keep the city clean. Ironically, the workers themselves, while keeping the city clean, reside amid garbage and squalor in the most abysmal of the city’s slums located between the two prestigious sectors (sectors F-6 and F-7).
Their houses consist of clusters of shanties devoid of adequate drainage and dependable water, power and gas supply. Just as one would try to mask a blemish on ones face, the city has tried to hide these slums from the surrounding localities by building high walls around them. But is this really a solution?
One wonders why a city which spends billions of rupees on widening roads, building public buildings and government housing, playgrounds, parks and expensive monuments (some of them truly extravagant and unnecessary) cannot provide sufficient low-cost housing to its employees. A sanitary worker residing in an F/6 slum reported that the sanitary conditions in his area were extremely poor. He complained dirty water gushed out of the gutters, endangering the residents’ health, and that the sewage system of the area has been lying damaged for years but the authorities did not pay heed to the issue.
IMAGING THE CAPITAL WITHOUT SANITARY WORKERS: A sanitary workers’ job is arduous as they provide one of the most essential services to the city. Quite possibly, the sanitary workers are more essential than even the officialdom of the federal capital (imagine both the government officials and the sanitation workers going on strike, the citizens will definitely miss their sanitation workers more immediately, as garbage and dirt starts piling up, than its government officials.) But despite being vital to the city’s life, sanitation workers are one of the lowest paid and most discriminated of the city’s employees.
PROVIDE THEM WITH RESIDENCE PERHAPS? Most of these sanitation workers have not been allotted plots or homes. Thousands of CDA employees reside in slums. According to the CDA by-laws, a person would be allotted a plot after 10 years of his service in CDA, but many of the sanitary workers have over 20 years of service under their belt but still have not been given these benefit. Some sanitary workers, however, succeed in snatching their rights and have procured houses from the government. But these workers too are not without grievances. “We have to pay Rs 3,500 as house rent from our salary, while the standard of the housing is very poor,” said a sanitary worker, Sohail, who has been serving in CDA for over 21 years. “We have been living in just one room and our house is constructed over only 1.5 marlas of land. Moreover, how can I run an eight-member family in just Rs7000?”
AND DISCRIMINATION: Since a majority of these workers happen to be Christians, they are doubly discriminated against. They are excluded from receiving any zakat money from the government while local private charities exclude them for religious reasons. The residents of the city also exclude them when handing out sacrificial meat on Eidul Azha. Regrettably, the sanitary workers live such difficult lives and receive little benefits despite working harder than other CDA employees.
A sanitary worker, Javed Johnson, complained that one could enjoy every facility by bribing senior officials. He said the workers who bribed their seniors enjoyed many facilities including accommodation but the poor ones who could not offer bribes were denied privileges.
“My salary is not enough to provide for my family, but at the same time I cannot let female members of my family do odd jobs,” said a sanitary employee, Joseph. He was critical of a 15 percent increase in salaries announced in the budget 2011-2012, saying it would not help them make ends meet.
‘IT’S TOUGH’: A garbage collector of the slum area, Anwar, protested that the garbage collectors of the area had to cover a long distance by foot to do their job. “I have to walk daily for more then three kilometers to collect garbage, which is a time consuming and burdensome task,” he said. He added that the problem was further augmented by CDA’s reluctance to hire more employees.
‘FORMER BOSS WAS BETTER’: Some sanitary workers said former CDA chairman Kamran Lashari was more supportive of poor employees than incumbent CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi. “The CDA chairman has even failed to have our faulty sewerage drains repaired,” said a sanitary inspector, Owais.
‘ALL CAN NOT BE ACCOMODATED’: CDA Spokesman Ramzan Sajid told Pakistan Today it was impossible to provide accommodation to all employees since the authority was in possession of only 1,700 housing units. He said the authority was giving house rent and other allowances to all those employees who failed to get official accommodation. He said the CDA looked after its employees without any discrimination and that the service structure was the same for all the workers.
