NAROWAL: Relatively higher prices of warm clothing at city’s Landa Bazaar (flea market) have left the indigent high and dry.

As the weather is turning harsh due to nip in the air, working class families are facing a great deal of inconvenience for being unable to afford woollies and other warm clothes to protect themselves against winter. Children in particular are vulnerable to illness due to unavailability of proper clothing. Philanthropists and the well-to-do have not distributed warm clothes among the indigent either, this season.

Unemployment and poverty are much higher in Narowal than in other districts of Punjab due to a lack of industrial zone. A good number of people are forced to work in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lahore and other major cities for want of opportunities. Worse still, there are reports that inflation and dearness have led to loss of lives of those steeped in poverty.

The prices of warm clothes have sharply increased in Narowal’s flea market during the current cold wave. A jersey which was available for Rs100 last winter, is now being sold between Rs250 and Rs300. A jacket now costs between Rs700 and 1,000 instead of last year’s price of Rs300. Children’s warm trousers are being sold from Rs50 to 200 and a set of five socks at Rs100.

Mohammad Ibrahim and Shafqat Ali who visited the market to buy essential warm clothes deplored sharp increase in the prices which, they said, had become unaffordable for them. They said the prices of winter stuff were lower in the flea markets of Lahore and Gujranwala.

Ibrahim and Ali work in big cities to eke out a living but they are unable to buy their children proper clothes to stave off harsh weather. They said the clothes were out of their reach.

Hafeezan Bibi, Kishore Liaquat and others said that unlike previous years, businessmen and landlords had not distributed warm clothes among the needy. They said they did not afford warm clothes. Hafeezan Bibi said her children had fallen ill due to a lack of warm clothes.

Speaking to Dawn, vendors Mohammad Naseer and Fareed Ahmed said that rich would leave used warm clothes at “Dewar-e-Mehrban” every winter but they hadn’t turned up this time round.

Mian Muhammad Rafique, vice president of the District Association of Human Rights, said three people including a women had committed suicide in one month due to unemployment and poverty. He said people were reeling under immense pressure due to inflation and unemployment and called upon the government and welfare organisations to help the needy.

The people have demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Usman Bazdar to help them in the severe cold wave.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021