Enquiries with the surviving wives revealed that the women had taken on their husbands’ roles and were now conservancy workers themselves. During Partition, Dalits in Pakistan were not allowed to migrate like the other non-Muslims as their work was considered “essential services”, forcing them to continue in conservancy work. Moreover, conservancy workers are embroiled in a system that is so corrupt that even when every cog in the machine is making money, their struggle remains stuck at demanding minimum wages. After the strike, an order of the Madras High Court dated August 20, 2025, has directed Delhi MSW Solutions to pay conservancy workers their last drawn wages. He referred to a recent statement by a Supreme Court judge who asked that sanitation workers entering manholes be “sensitised not to do so”.