Duran Gul, 65, a resident of Bajaur Agency is a daily wager. He comes every day to Speen Jumaat, University Road to look for a handy job but most often goes back empty hands.

“I spend my nights on the footpath as I cannot afford staying in a rented room. I feed 10-member family. I am sick and physically weak but I am willing to do any work that comes my way. It is almost second week that I find no work after waiting from dawn to dusk. People, who need labourers, don’t hire my service because of my old age,” he narrated his woeful tale while taking a deep sigh.

The miserable condition of Mr Gul is similar to a large number of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled daily wagers of different age groups. Hundreds of daily wagers with their tools gather at Speen Jumaat Chowk, Hayatabad Flyover, Tehkal Bala, Saddar Fowara Chowk, Hashtnagri and various other points in and around Peshawar city on daily basis.

They include not only uneducated or illiterate people but also university graduates and even master degree holders.

Official says provincial govt has no plan for daily wagers

Riast Ali, 15, a resident of Shangla, also a daily wager, lives in a rented room on University Road with his eight colleagues. Sharing his views with this scribe, he said that they looked for manual job everyday but had to sleep without food many a days.

“Scores of the labourers gather around any person, who comes to hire only three of them. Sometimes it results into a scuffle. When young men like me find no work for several days, they resort to street crimes while a few get involved in drugs trafficking. Teenagers are forced into sexual abuse as they have no other option,” said Mr Ali, painting a horrible picture.

Experts said that such unemployed and disgruntled daily wagers caused huge socio-economic impact and also trickled down to anti-social activities including street crimes, beggary, home robberies, drugs trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and terrorism.

Imran Qadeem, a young researcher, said that unfortunately, as usual, no data was available about daily wagers with any of the government departments concerned.

He said that the number of disgruntled daily wagers ran into thousands.

“The age group of daily wagers runs from 15 to 65. Majority of them are young and some are with better educational qualification. The return of well-off Afghan refugees cast a direct impact on our private entrepreneurs and business concerns. The recent rise in street crimes is significant. Their involvement in anti-social activities is quite natural,” he explained.

Mr Qadeem said that a considerable number of jobless daily wagers turned to drugs and suffered from various psychological ailments.

Jawad Rahim, 30, a resident of Takht Bhai and a university graduate, is among the daily wagers, who have learnt paving tiles on floor.

He said that most daily wagers had run in deep debit as they found no work to earn and had to take loans for running their households.

“Three years ago, after doing masters in Urdu literature, I could not find any job. I learnt the skill of paving tiles but even I am unable to earn enough to fulfil my own daily expenses. My old father, sick mother and four siblings depend on me. Last year, one of my jobless friends committed suicide out of frustration. Would you call it ‘life’ or life under the shadow of death,” he questioned.

Mr Rahim said that month of Ramazan remained the hardest time for daily wagers because all kinds of construction work came to a complete halt.

“Most of the workers literarily starve during Ramazan and even a month after it. Our children seldom celebrate Eids and other festivals. Perhaps poor are not born to celebrate Eids,” he added.

Talking about impacts on the mental health of daily wagers in case of non-availability of job opportunities, noted psychiatrist Dr Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that it would definitely take different ugly shapes in terms of abnormal human behavioural attitude and imbalanced personality.

He said that disgruntled wagers would displace their frustration and anger on their children and families and might satisfy their bruised self-esteem in criminal activities and drugs abuse.

He said that professional training on behavioural attitude should be imparted besides vocational training.

“Youth should have a proper profession-oriented training and more employment opportunities. They should not go unattended. I would request NGOs to do some work on this project too. People who have strength and an urge to do some work should not go to waste. If not, then get ready for its deep socio-economic impact,” said the psychiatrist.

He said that research should be conducted on causes and effects of joblessness and also affected communities should be reached out so that the impact could be either prevented or minimised.

Zahid Khan Shinwari, former chief of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told this scribe that unemployment was a do or die issue for the country. He said that provincial government must encourage private entrepreneurship to create employment opportunities especially for youth.

Mr Shinwari said that unemployed youth was a potential threat and a great liability.

“KP government should set up a body to register all such daily wagers with their full bio data including their work skill and experience. This should serve as a focal point for providing private services and even vocational training,” he added.

An official of provincial Labour department, when contacted, said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had no plan for daily wagers.

He said that new industrial and youth policies of the provincial government had offered much to labourers and skilled people.

“But no plan on the issue of daily wagers is in sight under the incumbent KP government,” he added.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017