The need to dispense aid to the poor without hurting their pride or sense of self-respect by disclosing their identity has been growing for many years. —PPI Photo

THE death of about 20 women in a stampede by fellow supplicants for food rations free of charge may well be taken as the climax of an extremely painful drama about poverty in Pakistan witnessed throughout the month of Ramazan this year.

That the sacred month of fasting should be chosen for setting new records in profiteering and market manipulation by hoarders was not entirely unexpected because the pull of money is often stronger than the call of faith. Nor was one surprised at the frenzied scramble for securing wheat flour or sugar at subsidised rates. Both phenomena are rooted in our culture. What could not easily be swallowed were the fallacious assumptions underlying the official reaction to the plight of the poor.

When the people raised a hue and cry at the spurt in sugar prices the authorities tried price control and only succeeded in exposing their lack of capacity to enforce their writ. Attempts to probe the causes of the problem were at best half-hearted and ultimately a scapegoat was found in the form of the farmer who cultivated less sugarcane than before.

A man died while standing in a queue in front of a subsidised wheat flour counter. The explanation came quickly: the authorities were not to be blamed because the old man had suffered cardiac arrest. The questions as to what had made him stand for so long in the oppressive heat and whether the state was in any way responsible for his poverty were not considered worth addressing. The tendency to offer superficial explanations for complex problems is much in evidence.

The political leaders who have been travelling long distances to inspect sastay bazars or centres for distribution of food items and to console the poor deserve due appreciation for their labour. Sometimes they do win plaudits for suspending officials for failing to help the poor. There is something to be said for unorthodox steps to assuage the people’s anxieties. But it is time the inappropriateness and inadequacy of attempts to deal with poverty through seasonal fits of philanthropy were realised.

For one thing, the scenes of countless hands raised to grab a bag of wheat flour or a pound of sugar cause unbearable anguish for three reasons. First, they provide an index to the extent and pattern of poverty in the land. Second, they show that a large number of people have been reduced to the status of shameless beggars. And, third, they confirm, to a considerable extent, the Pakistani men’s habit of reserving rigorous (especially time-consuming) and humiliating tasks for their womenfolk, even in areas where they are not allowed to appear in public.

Unfortunately the Pakistani elite, especially its part in government, does not realise the demeaning effects of parading dole-receivers before the camera. The need to dispense aid to the poor without hurting their pride or sense of self-respect by disclosing their identity has been growing for many years. Efforts to meet this need must no longer be delayed.

Besides, ad hoc measures to provide relief to the poor by supplying food items and other necessities of life, free or at concessional rates, are good as responses to unforeseen disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, drought or armed conflicts. They cannot be recommended as solutions to afflictions of a permanent nature that poverty is. After all Ramazan is only one of the 12 months. How will the people offered relief during Ramazan fend for themselves during the other 11 months? Thus, even after conceding that the supplies of wheat flour and sugar at subsidised rates have brought some relief to the poor, the urgency of bringing the entire population under poverty-eradication projects cannot be denied.

The cause of the poor has suffered considerably because of the state’s inability to comprehend the implications of its elitist policies. Over the past few years there has been a sharp increase in the gap between the minimum wage and the remuneration allowed to the privileged (parliamentarians, administrators engaged on contract in special grades, media celebrities, executives in the private sector and professionals such as lawyers and doctors).

While the poor have become poorer the beneficiaries of the hugely skewed wage structure are enjoying unprecedented windfalls. Among other things this has deprived the under-privileged of the services of well-wishers in the middle class who used to articulate their concerns. Without a voice of their own the poor have been pushed to the last row in the hall of privileges – an easy prey for the devil.

It should be obvious to the authorities that the problem of poverty cannot be resolved by persuading an increasing number of people to don beggars’ robes. This is much too serious a problem to be overcome through sporadic exercises in philanthropy or grossly inadequate stipends. What is needed is a rights-based drive to enable the poor to have the satisfaction of overcoming the curse of want through their own labour. For this it is necessary for the state to realise that it cannot be absolved of its role in causing and increasing poverty. It must guarantee work to every citizen who is capable of doing anything productive and social security to all those who for one reason or another are unable to earn their living.

This suggestion is no more than what the state has solemnly resolved to do under Article 38 of the constitution, namely to ensure the prevention of concentration of wealth in the hands of a few; equitable adjustment of rights between employers and employees, and landlords and tenants; providing for all citizens facilities for work and adequate livelihood; extension of social security; and provision of the basic necessities of life to the infirm and unemployed.

True, these pledges are subject to the availability of resources but there is no lack of resources to buy arms – why should the plea of shortage of resources be invoked only to deny the poor their rights? Moreover, the state may be unable to redeem all its pledges in one go but it must some day begin to move in the right direction, preferably before Ramazan next year if only to avoid the loss of life in melees such as seen this month.