Where the grass hasn’t been green for a long time
Lahore is described as the city of gardens. Indians coming for the first time are awestruck by the beauty of the city, the hospitality of its people and its eateries serving Lahori ‘taka tak’, besides a variety of local cuisine. Parts of the town can be compared to posh areas in any European city.
On the road along the canal there are several underpasses that help people drive freely without waiting at any traffic signal from near the border with India to the newly constructed residential localities some twenty kilometres away. The ring road can take car drivers from one end of the city to the other in much shorter time than in New Delhi during the peak hours.
There is another Lahore marked by poverty which looks altogether different. Figures collected through surveys do not show the human misery caused by the rising poverty levels. There is a need to look at how the poor manage to keep alive in this other city.
Punjab is the richest province of the country and the show peace of PML-N’s good governance. Lahore, called by Saraiki writers and politicians ‘Takht-e-Lahore,’ is considered the centre of power in the country.
A look at the other Lahore would call into question the claims of progress and good governance. Where do the poor live? In a way, all over the city; from Green Town on one end to Jia Musa on the other. Their concentration, though, is katchi abadis or squatter settlements, parts of old city and the localities around. There are at least 150 katchi abadis in area under the jurisdiction of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) alone.
A number of katchi abadis ere scattered around foul smelling drains that carry the city’s sewerage. Here the children play on the banks for lack of playfields or even a green patch. Cases of minors drowning in the drains have been reported from time to time. The localities are mosquito infected with the result that malaria, dengue fever and typhoid become widespread in certain seasons. Problems related to lungs are reported around the year. Many families live in single room habitations. Most lack basic amenities like electricity, water, sewerage, education and health facilities. Effluents from the katchi abadis located in the vicinity of the city’s celebrated canal are emptied into the waterway which is still used by the youth from the other Lahore for swimming in hot summers.
A look at the other Lahore would call into question the claims of progress and good governance
Crime is rife in poor localities. Children are kidnapped from these areas, maimed and used as beggars in far off places by gangs minting money by using beggars.
The birth rate in the poor areas is high and so is the child mortality rate. Still a big percentage of the families has larger number of children than they can feed, which shows the inadequacy of the family planning program.
With most of the well to do people having moved out, the old city too accommodates numerous families living below the poverty line. Most of these try to find work in Landa Bazar, Sarafa Bazar, Shah Alam market and other business centres inside the old city.
There being no worthwhile youth training program in Punjab, most of the young people in poor localities have no skill. This has created a large pool of unskilled labour comprising both educated people and school dropouts.
How does a family in poor localities earn their livelihood? There are porters living in katchi abadis who get up hours before sunrise and proceed to one of the several vegetable and fruit markets of the city. They are fortunate if by sunset they can earn over three to four hundred rupees. Part of the money goes to lunch, the cost of which has risen three fold in the last ten years.
There are sweepers, car washers and office boys. There are donkey-cart pushers and rickshaw drivers. Except for those who own their rickshaws or donkey, the rest are destitute. There are petty vendors selling things in poor localities on push carts. They are a little better off.
Several shoe shiners from Mohmand Agency live together in single rooms in these abadis. They have to save money to send home. Also, Afghan refugee boys collect recyclables like paper, plastics, metal parts on large baskets carried on hired bikes. They sometime have to jump into giant bins full of dirt to retrieve things. When they come out they look like London’s chimney sweepers in Charles Dickens’ novels.
There are construction workers who act as day labourers. Many among the landless peasants from villages around Lahore and Kasur come to the city to work as unskilled labourers. In case a man succeeds in getting work he may earn from Rs500 to Rs550 a day. But he has to buy his lunch and in case he comes from Kasur he has also to pay the two way bus fare. This takes away Rs 150 from the daily wage. In case one fails to find work, he is likely to sleep on the sidewalk. Any early riser may see scores of them curled up around Chauburji or Data Darbar area.
With most of the well to do people having moved out, the old city too accommodates numerous families living below the poverty line
Many among the poor cannot afford to support large families. They have to send their children to work Lahore survives on child labour. Thousands of small tea stalls (khokhas), low brow eateries called dhabas, puncture-cum-repair shops for bikes would simply stop functioning if child labour was not available.
Many children from poor localities start working at the age of ten onwards. They were once preferred by the carpet industry and small scale manufacturing units. Cottage industries which do not require ISO certificates continue to employ child labour.
Their wages are extremely low. For months the child has to work without payment as he is supposed to be an apprentice. There are no fixed working hours. The child has to work sometime for twelve hours a day. Besides being overworked and subjected to physical punishment he is also likely to be molested.
The children have to work sometime in hazardous trades. When a firecracker factory in Karachi caught fire in May this year, five of the 35 children workers were killed and six badly burnt. As the father of two of the injured boys told a newspaper reporter, he too had spent his childhood working. “There is no other way to earn money,” he said. Incidents of the sort have been recorded in Lahore also.
Poor families in katchi abadis near middle class residential areas send their girls to work as housemaids to add to the meagre family income. These children are often exposed to verbal, physical and sexual abuse and violence by their employers. Some of the worst violations of human rights have been reported in the case of house maids. A 10-year-old maid was tortured to death in Lahore this year with a steel pipe after being accused of stealing. Another 16-year-old girl was found raped and beaten to death in the home of a trader in Lahore she worked for.
The Lahore of the poor is poles apart from the beautiful city with houses constructed by competent architects, roads facilitating smooth traffic, markets selling branded goods, international food chains operating till late hours and localities imparting a feeling of security due to the presence of uniformed private guards.