KARACHI, July 20: Inequality is not only breeding poverty but eroding purchasing power of lower and lower middle class. These were the findings of a study ‘Women in poverty’, undertaken by SPDC recently.

The study is based on research and interview with women from a cross section of society, including married women, belonging to lower middle class families with income ranging from Rs2000, Rs5000 per month. The group also includes single parent female-headed families.

The study brought to the fore the hardships a woman experience because of her husband’s resources being too meager to meet both ends or in case she is the sole bread-earner of her family. The study found the women aware of why they had become poor. They feel that they have become increasingly excluded from the market. With plenty of purchasing power of other levels keeps prices higher, they do not have enough resources to spend adequately on their family survival, the study said.

The study selected most of the women, as sample, that have four or more children and live in small one or two room houses. They have assets such as television and refrigerators purchased during better times.

Families belong to low-level public sector employees, industrial worker, shop assistants, skilled workers and those self-employed in informal sector. In almost all cases their children attend govt schools.

When a carpenter’s wife, with her husband out of job, was asked how does she cope with vagaries of life, she said her husband finds odd jobs here and there. But if there are no jobs, the next thing to follow is hunger. A woman from middle class family said that rich can afford to eat and dress up well and educate their children in good schools. That is why prices are so higher and markets are still able to function.

The women depending on salary income complain that the last ten days of the month are generally the most difficult ones.

The study said sometimes the women, being housekeepers, have to apply certain cut on expenditure. As resources shrink, they prioritise their necessities. Almost the entire income is spent on rent, utilities, food, education and health. When budget shrinks due to price-hike the expenses that are considered less important are cut one by one, excluding rent and utilities being unavoidable. — Tariq Mehmood Hasan