AMMA Zainab looked shattered and bedraggled, her hair dishevelled and her eyes blood-shot. The poverty-stricken widow worked in many houses in my neighbourhood, doing arduous chores such as laundry, dishes and scrubbing floors. She never expressed her grouse when asked to do anything extra.
She had only one son who had recently become an electrician and while climbing an electric pole to carry out repairs, he got a severe electric shock. Luckily, he survived, but one of his arms had to be amputated. His mother’s world was torn apart. She just couldn’t get over the tragedy.
Such horrendous incidents are almost a daily occurrence. Human life is indubitably valuable and it is sad that people are constantly exposed to the danger of death in order to earn a meagre living. To kill their hunger-pangs they have to go through physical excoriation and encounter health hazards, economic privations and social injustices. Employers and higher-ups in the relevant departments need to provide safety gadgets and precautionary devices to those doing risk jobs such as maintenance and repair of electric poles, transmitters, etc. Prompt first-aid measures should be readily available. Sadly enough, the pittance such lesser mortals get in no way commensurates with the frightful and dangerous nature of their jobs.
One of the many downtrodden and pitiable segments of our society is that of sweepers. Due to the filthy nature of their job, they deserve our respect and deep-seated gratitude. If they abandon their job for a couple of days, the odorous heaps of rubbish in front of our houses and on the roadsides can make life a hellish experience for us. Ironically, the more difficult the job, the more deplorably low is their wage level. We are familiar with the common sight of the sweepers busy sweeping away refuse and litter from the roadsides early in the morning and amidst columns of dust. They inhale the dust and unknowingly endanger their health. The awareness has yet to be created among them that they should at least cover their faces when doing so. Arrangement must be made to sprinkle the places they sweep with water, plausibly with the help of water tankers.
In some cases, sweepers even have to go down into gutters to clear the sewerage lines cluttered with filth and reeking of fumes, against which they don’t have any protection. The question arises why mechanical devices cannot be substituted for manual labour in such life-threatening jobs.
Another ghastly scene that meets the eye more than often is that of little children trawling the garbage heaps for saleable or usable items. These ragamuffins scavenge putrid trash with their bare hands and are barefooted as well. It is not difficult to gauge the serious consequences of their exposure to diseases and epidemics. For them, survival in grinding poverty is their sole concern. The government, philanthropic and welfare organizations are responsible to remedy the situation. Life for the people who have to kill their hunger pangs and cannot think beyond a day at a time has to be made bearable and livable.
Life for the less-privileged is one big question mark on how to grapple with the tedium and hardships of life. It is painful to see endless queues of low-paid workers near banks, waiting to pay their utility bills, and random rows of pensioners waiting to collect their paltry pensions. Even in hospitals, they have to wait endlessly, sometimes under the scorching sun, to await their turn to see the doctor. The mental stress and strain these victims of poverty undergo defies all description. Crushed under the rigours and burdens of life, they seem to have resigned themselves to their respective fate. Can there be a change for them for the better? In civilized societies, even animal life and health is valued. It is criminal to relegate human beings to the status of dumb cattle. Self-esteem and dignity of every living being has to be assigned due importance.
Who will come to rescue these silent sufferers? This reminds me of a poor woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy working laboriously at a construction site. Those who are accursed by fate and have to cope with an impecunious life seem to ask us questions such as: “Do we, too, not need breathing space?” How long are we supposed to rivet our gaze on the inaccessibly distant rosy horizons?
AMMA Zainab looked shattered and bedraggled, her hair dishevelled and her eyes blood-shot. The poverty-stricken widow worked in many houses in my neighbourhood, doing arduous chores such as laundry, dishes and scrubbing floors. She never expressed her grouse when asked to do anything extra.
