Adil Najam
Our educated chattering classes do not consider it sophisticated to talk about milk.
(Photo Credit for this powerful picture: Baba Dody)
They would much rather spend their time pontificating about global geopolitics, the power politics of our would-be-saviors (both those in power and those waiting to come back to power), the intricacies of conspiracy theories about ‘hidden hands’ and not-so-hidden motives, and trying to read the ‘real’ story ‘between lines’ even as they ignore the stark realities of the lines themselves. Of course, for others there is always the option to belch out slogans reeking of pious religosity or self-righteous modernity.
Ultimately, however, you need to think about the price of milk. Because milk is a necessity and slogans are merely a distraction.
I know enough economics to know that while improvements in macro-economic trends matters, they matters much less when the cost of living and making ends meet for the citizenry at large run contrary. We at ATP have been and remain quite concerned about everyday inflationary trends. As we have stressed before, there is something very wrong when the denomination of the highest value banknote (Rs. 5000) is greater than what is considered a decent monthly wage for a middle-class Pakistani! We have also written about just how much it really costs ordinary Pakistanis to get petrol. Now, it turns out that the cost of milk – a daily necessity – is on the rise and moving in the same direction as the cost of petrol.
Many of us tend to think of Pakistan as a place where things are cheaper than in Europe, the US, the Middle East, or elsewhere. I don’t want to go into the math again (see here and here), but this graphic from The Daily Times (3 November, 2006), reminds us yet again that the real cost of living in Pakistan is not just higher than in most other places, for ordinary Pakistanis it is exorbitant.
The text in the graphic reports that most companies have raised the price of their one-litre packs of processed milk, and what used to sell for Rs. 30 is now selling at Rs. 38. Moreover, it reports that the price is likely to increase further.
All of this reminds me of a post Mansoor had recently written in Karachi Metroblog where he posed the question “What exactly can you do with a Million Ruppees?” The answer he came up with was, ‘Not too much!’
A lakh-patti (One Lakh=100,000) is not necessarily rich and depending of how many ‘lakhs’ one has, may even be poor!
The really sad part is that despite all this, most Pakistanis will never know what a Lakh Ruppees look like. And it is we, and not just the ‘authorities’ who are need to accept the blame. For those of you who like to get agitated about things, get agitated about this: The cruelty in society comes not only from the actions of those in power, but from the neglect, the silence, and the inaction of all of us. Indeed, from our willing participation in keeping things as they are.
“Donkeys: 4,300,000”
“maybe some are being counted in other populations ..”
I can think of four seen in the diwali celebration picture. Four well-fed donkeys. Could the one in the middle of that picture be a khuchur? He just seemed big for a donkey.
Thoughtful post and interesting discussion. I do not know the detials of the dairy industry but do hope that the broader message of the post and the second half – which is about how difficult daily survival is becoming with increasing costs – is not lost. That is a real challenege and has been for this and last many governments. All have failed to address this meaningfully.
Owais, are you sure we have ONLY 4.3 million donkeys…. always seem like there are more… maybe some are being counted in other populations ;-)
aayiay hum ‘doodkh ka doodh aur pani ka pani karte haiN’
Interestingly, according to 2006 livestock census of Pakistan, we have 1 buffalo per 5 people and 1 goat per 3 peoplw which means the country should be ‘khud-kafeel’ in meat and dairy both. I had a post on this topic at another forum and I’ll gather some census number of live-stock in pakistan as of 2006 :)
buffalo population: 28,400,000
Goat: 61,900,000
Sheep: 25,500,000
Milk production of Pakistan for fiscal year 2005-06 was:
31,294,600,000 tonnes
Some other interesting numbers for pakistan:
Human population in 2006: 154,000,000
Donkeys: 4,300,000
Adil
You are right the corporate sector has established a strong network of milk collection centres in remote areas of Pakistan and particularly in Punjab. Nestle has more than 3000 milk collection centres, then comes CDL (Haleeb) and now Engro is entering in the market. There are more than 23 UHT milk treatment plants in Pakistan and most of them are owned by private sector.
Gawala (milkman) collects 90% of the milk from farmgate and the new policy wants to eliminate gawala’s role and relegate it to the milk collection centres.
I think after cooperative scandal in 80’s people are really scared of it. But still I believe that the small scale producers can only survive with strong cooperative (Amul) initiatives against the corporate giants.