Horrid poverty, what are the prevention acts?

• Author: Ahmed, Khalil

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

About 1.3 billion people live in extreme poverty across the world. Majority of this impoverished population is in the African and Asian countries. People with per day income under $1.25 have drawn attention of the affluent countries to come forward and tackle the issue, which may engulf many regions with enormous level of crime and other ills.

There is no denying that there is horrid poverty in Pakistan. The Senate, the upper house in Pakistan, reverberated with the demands of minimum wage at Rs30,000 which did not materialize. The criteria of the setting the minimum wage is still an enigma for the millions in Pakistan. With the current minimum wage, which is not even Rs 20,000, a family of six or more cannot think of even having two meals a day in these times of sky-high inflation. With either no steady job or income fluctuation, millions of Pakistanis face uncertain future. Around one-third of the total population of 210 million is labor force, which looks towards the government every year prior to the Federal Budget for relief in the prices of essential commodities.

Abdul Ghani, a gardener by profession, cleans cars in an apartment in a middle class locality of Karachi. He hails from Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab and has been working in Karachi, Sindh for over a decade. He came to Karachi with a dream that he would get splendid opportunities of earning and would be able to supplement household income by doing some ancillary jobs as well. His dream has turned into a horrid dream since he is not able to keep body and soul together even after working for 16 hours every day. His adolescent son has also joined him in his endeavors of cleaning ample cars early morning every day to turn around the economic condition of the family. Nothing has ameliorated for them at all. They clean 30 cars in toto for which their entire income is around Rs 21000, which is subject to fluctuation.

Muneer, a rickshaw driver, bought a rickshaw on instalments with the hope that he would be able to pay off his liabilities and support his family. Nothing has worked for him. He is going through financial crunch and is not able to even pay monthly instalments in time, let alone having at least a good meal once a day as dreamt at the time of buying the rickshaw.

There are a deluge of such stories in every nook and corner of the country. All these issues were deemed to be addressed through micro financing which has...