The Shame of Being Poor in Pakistan

• Poverty is universally linked with feelings of shame, finds study

An international research carried by Oxford University suggests that the condition of being poor is universally linked with feelings of shame.

The research project in several countries including Pakistan, South Korea, Uganda and the UK reveals the unfair wealth divide and the baggage of shame that it carries. Leading researchers and filmmakers from these countries have collaborated to produce a film, called ‘Rich Man Poor Man’, which draws a comparative study of different social classes.

Led by Professor Robert Walker from Oxford University, this is the first time an international study has analysed and filmed the importance of shame in understanding the experiences of poverty.

Building on the findings of Oxford University’s academic study of Poverty, Shame and Social Exclusion, the film demonstrates how poverty is experienced as an inherently shameful condition in four continents, regardless of the level of material deprivation involved.

The film, a suite of four films, reflects a poor and a comparatively wealthy family in each country to record their under-lying experiences of either living in poverty or how they view those in poverty.

Speaking to a foreign new outfit, Professor Walker says, “Very little is known about the way people in different countries experience and regard poverty. In parts of India and Pakistan it is possible that loss of ‘family honour’ adds to any sense of personal shame. Our research suggests that, in future, policymakers need to be mindful of the risks of undermining those living in poverty. Treating people without respect may perpetuate the problem.”

From Pakistan, the documentary filmmaker, Ammar Aziz has examined the class structure, linking it with poverty-induced shaming. The film reveals surprising parallels in how people living in poverty are stigmatized.

The film profiles two contrasting families and explores their experiences of and attitudes to poverty. It highlights the study’s main conclusions, that the shame universally associated with being poor can have a more far-reaching impact on social exclusion than the level of poverty.

The film revolves around two families of Lahore – a family where everyone works as domestic workers and a family from the city’s elite class.

A woman from the poor family who is a school cleaner married to a road sweeper, says, “We feel so ashamed of our profession and avoid meeting our relatives. We can’t meet them because of our vulnerable condition. While working in the school, I see rich children having a good lunch. I avoid being there because it makes me feel bad that I can’t provide my children with such food.”

While a rich man, featured in the film, describes the class system in Pakistan, “The poor people and people who come from the lower middle class… they are not striving hard. They are not doing enough for themselves, or for the country for that matter. If all classes became the same class, there would be no one to do the work. The class system was created by God Almighty.”

Speaking about his work, Ammar says, “We’ve tried to have a dialectical approach in the film’s form in order to incite the class-difference in a visually striking manner.”

The film was recently shown on the Community Channel of UK and will be screened in Pakistan in the near future.