Reclaiming public spaces: experiences of social exclusion of female sanitary workers in public spaces in Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research explores the challenges faced by female Christian sanitary workers in the public spaces of Lahore, Pakistan, utilising Nancy Fraser’s analytical framework of redistribution, recognition, and representation to uncover multifaceted factors contributing to their societal marginalisation. Through in-depth interviews with 19 participants, the study sheds light on significant economic, sociocultural, and political barriers, including exploitative working conditions religious discrimination, and societal attitudes deeming sanitation labour as inferior. The findings reveal that workers endure exploitative work devoid of protections, heightened by enduring religious discrimination and caste hierarchies fostering disrespect towards sanitation labour as polluting and lowly. This situation induces anxiety amongst sanitation workers when accessing shared amenities, visceral harassment during housing searches, everyday humiliation while using public transport, and internalisation of shame even when accessing health-care facilities. The absence of workplace contracts, bargaining powers, or avenues to advocate for needs-based policy changes leaves workers politically marginalised, intensifying the precarity faced by multiple generations undertaking hazardous manual roles in urban waste management. Consequently, this engenders socio-spatial exclusion of female sanitation workers across economic, sociocultural, and political dimensions. This exclusion challenges prevailing state narratives celebrating cleanliness initiatives while perpetuating hardships for those contributing to waste management. The research emphasises the urgent need for targeted policy interventions, calling for a reassessment of administrative and planning approaches governing public spaces to foster inclusivity, challenge societal hierarchies, and ensure adequate representation for marginalised women amidst Lahore’s ongoing urbanisation.