Sanitary worker dies in Umerkot after fasting doctors refuse to touch his ‘unclean’ body
UMERKOT: In yet another incident exposing the lack of conformity to safety rules and the alleged apathy of medical practitioners, a sanitary worker suffocated to death on Thursday in Umerkot. The deceased, 30-year-old Irfan Masih, fell unconscious along with three other sanitary staff while cleaning a manhole on Chorr Road in Umerkot.
He died hours later in the government hospital in front of doctors who were allegedly reluctant to treat him because Irfan was drenched in sewage sludge. The other three sanitary workers, Faisal Masih, Yaqoob Masih and Shaukat Masih, were referred to Hyderabad and later Karachi for medical treatment.
All of the workers fell unconscious while cleaning the central manhole, which had already claimed the lives of two sanitary workers, 25-year-old Krishan Gujrati and 28-year-old Nawaz Masih, in September 2012. Local residents pulled out the staff from the manhole and shifted them to the hospital.
Pervez Masih, Irfan’s brother, said that he cleaned his brother’s body, after which the doctors sent an oxygen cylinder. “But the cylinder was empty. And, before they could arrange another cylinder, he [Irfan] died,” he told local media.
The protesting sanitary workers said that 60 daily wage workers are employed by the municipal committee in Umerkot. They alleged that the committee’s non-cadre officers Khalid Punjabi and Behari Lal compelled Irfan and others to work in the manhole without safety gear.
The municipal committee’s chairman or administrative officers could not be contacted for their versions.
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