Arif Hassan & Others v. Province of Sindh & Others in the High Court of Sindh

On behalf of human activists, the Law Office of Sara Malkani filed a constitutional petition in the High Court of Sindh challenging the dangerous and often fatal practice of manual gutter cleaning.

Sanitation workers are often required to enter gutters and sewerage drains, subjecting them to direct contact with human waste, hazardous substances and lethal gases. Members of religious minorities and low-caste groups tend to perform this hazardous work. Many sanitation workers have died while cleaning gutters.

One among many incidents of sanitation worker deaths took place on 21 September 2025 when three sanitation workers, one aged about 45 years and two teenagers aged approximately 15 to 17 years died while manually cleaning blocked gutters in Usmanabad, Karachi. The workers were hired  by the Union Council Chairman to clean eight blocked gutters.

The 45 year old worker successfully cleaned six gutters but collapsed after inhaling poisonous gases upon entering the seventh. The two teenagers entered in an attempt to rescue him and also collapsed. With no safety rope or rescue mechanism available, their bodies were retrieved hours later by private individuals and taken to the hospital, where all three were declared dead.