Back in January 2007, I wrote about beggars on the streets of Lahore, Karachi and the growing indifference in our society towards these extremely poor and forgotten people. Hundreds of organized gangs are operating in almost every big city of Pakistan who amputate the organs of little kids, old and young people and then leave them on streets to make good money for them. But what about the unfortunate beggars themselves?
We see them every day at traffic signals and footpaths from our car windows and most of the times just throw a coin at them and try to ignore them as they don’t exist. This level of indifference in our society is sad. May be we were put on this side of the car window for a reason, to be able to help those on the other side.
Our courts are too busy solving the legal and constitutional issues, the law enforcement agencies are occupied keeping an eye on politicians or arresting and deporting them, and all of us are too busy debating all this … but, for whom? Maybe it is those who are debating the ‘big picture’ who are really missing the big picture that can only be seen in the small pictures.
The photograph above by Jawad Zakariya, once again reminded me of the miserable life of these unwanted people in our country. Society rejects them and police harshly beats them on daily basis, adding to their misery.
Jawad writes with this photograph on flickr and I can totally relate to him as many times I must have done the same:
As I was taking photos in and around Data Darbar. This old man asked me to come over.
“Will you print these photos in the newspaper?”, he asked. Before I could explain that I wasn’t affiliated with any paper, he continued. Tell them how the police brutally beat us up all the time….and he showed me the injuries on his arms and legs.
“Why do they do that?”, I asked.
“Because we sit here begging. This is Data Darbar ! where else can I go.”
… and he started crying … print this in the paper maybe then they’ll stop … then he thought for a moment …
maybe if you print it they’ll get more angry….
another pause …
print it, maybe some higher up will see it and make them stop.“They hit old crippled men”…..”shameless animals”….”Is this why we made this Pakistan”…..”Is this Why ???”………..he kept asking as he wept.
I had no answer … I got back into my Civic … turned on the AC … and started driving away.
“Is this why we made this Pakistan?” I have asked myself this questions many times and never found an answer. Can you think of an answer?
The dispensation Pakistan cripples every time when someone came over and has a look on dis ability of social systems Pakistan’s urbanity and mosques stand for.
So let me state something against capitalists ‘Law & Order’ supplements of hiding the organizational crime aspect : The central question That I shall address here is just one part of Pakistan agenda, what is involved in depicting law in urban societies as a whole, or single legal orders, or specific legal phenomena? This may be interpreted as one way of rephrasing the central question of traditional jurisprudence: what is law?
SALAAM!
It was rather sad to read this post but let it not become a popularity contest between India and Pakistan.
I work with local food bank and other charities in the US and come across worse cases even in the land of plenty.
Poverty and sufferings are just as old as the mankind. And since we cannot bring back the time of Caliph Omar, the best we can do is to alleviate poverty through fair distribution of resources and education. But…
Alms-giving on the run, as we do in our streets, only benefits professional beggars, not the deserving. Rather than handing over 5 or 10 rupees to beggars piecemeal, it will be more beneficial to the needy if we support a charity that works on the uplift of the poor. Good established charities not only identify deserving groups but employ long-term strategies to bring the target groups of the cycle of poverty, mostly by arming them with skills, tools and business finances.
Here is an example from Indonesia, which is not much different from Pakistan in its socio-economy, that we can follow to eliminate the curse of
why Pakistan alone…..the divide between rich and the poor is widening everywhere in the world. The issue of power and money being handled by a few is everywhere…..the class divide is gaping everywhere in the world and consumerit culture is robbing us with the old human values. It has nothing to with a nation rather it has to do largely with consumerist culture where we just think about ourselves and forget about our responsibilities towards a larger society. Add to the misery the politicians and people in power use this as a plank to keep their rule and feed on the resources which can fill this gap.
In India too the gap has drastically widen and though the class of “haves” has increased but the rate of increase of “have-nots” is a lot greater. Same is in US and pick any country the story will be the same, it is more pronounced in more populated countries of south Asia.
If we do not co-operate and work towards welfare of the poor, i am sure the internal clashes will do us all in. A very black picture but could well be true.
Please visit india once. See the situation there. See how people live there. People there have much more serious problems. In spite of our many problems and weaker institutions, the quality of life is much better here. This is not to say that we should shut our eyes towards the problems which we have in our society. But things should be kept in perspective without blowing them out of proportion.
As for Pakistan not developing in 60 years, maybe it would be worthwhile to read sometime about what we had when Pakistan was created (virtually scratch) and what we have now. Then we can better answer those who try to paint Pakistan as failed state due to their personal frustrations.