October 1, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 18, 1428

KARACHI: Forty-five-year-old Faiz can barely make ends meet. She works as a maid in two homes and earns Rs2,000 to feed an unemployed husband and seven young children. Once all the necessities are dealt with — Rs1,000 as house rent, flour worth Rs30 per day, Rs50 on electricity — she is left with a pittance of Rs50. Today, millions share her daily battles, which have intensified further with criminal price-hikes.

Faiz, like the rest of Karachi’s poor, is crippled by the high inflation rates and wonders whether the festival of Eid is really worth the cost. Despite claims of a bumper crop, flour has gone up from Rs12 to Rs20 in three years with sugar, oil and rice are not far behind. In short, the price of food barely allows for two square meals.

However, Faiz’s troubles began early. She survived a severe stroke in her youth and suffers from hypertension. “My parents and brothers paid for my treatment and now I can walk and work, but they are no longer in touch with me as I am unable to pay them back,” she says with tears.

She shares her two-room house in a slum on University Road with her brother, his wife, and their five children. “Who can knock sense into the men in our community? Almost everyone in the family has more than five children,” she says, regretting that she could have given a better life to fewer kids.

Today, meals for her family have become less than meagre. “After spending on 1.5 kilos of flour for just two meals a day, I only have enough money for pickle, so meat and vegetables are out of the question,” she laments.

Where a full meal may have become a tall order, dreams come without a premium. Faiz still wishes that her sons could have attended school but despite her own fate, her daughters are not a part of this wish. “I once enrolled two of my children in government school and I had to spend almost Rs1,500 on uniform and books for one year. But then I could not do this for long and had to take them out,” she says with a sigh.

The government’s promises of poverty alleviation have failed to make this Ramazan any different from the past. Not only has the inflation widened the divide between the rich and the poor, it has left people like Faiz with almost nothing to raise a family.

Dr Asad Sayeed, a leading economist, acknowledges that the situation has worsened over the years. “The bulk of the expenditure of the underprivileged is mainly food items and when the prices of these go up it directly affects the poor,” he says. “No government has been so ruthlessly inconsiderate towards the poor as this one and the only change that can make a difference is that of the government itself. This is also partly because of the devolution plan that has been set into motion.” Sayeed offers two strategies that can keep the situation from becoming so excruciating for the poor. “The first one is to have vigilance committees that should actually keep a check on the prices. Secondly, the production of crops and other edible items should be monitored and it should be ensured that it does not end up in the black market and in wrong hands,” says the expert. “With a finance specialist for a prime minister, it can hardly be rocket science. We can acquire the knowledge and make nuclear weapons so if we try hard enough, we can do wonders in poverty alleviation.”

Although Faiz’s home can get a new lease of life with another income, her neighbours do not make much more than Rs5,000 per month either. For now, all they can afford is a staple of hope and that can perhaps make for some sleep.