THE BEWILDERED IMPOVERISHED.

• Author: Ahmed, Khalil

Byline: KHALIL AHMED

Prior to the calamity of the COVID-19, Ms Seema used to visit over ten houses every day to teach children. She is the sole breadwinner since her husband's income is reliant on the daily labour if oA!ered by someone. Both the husband and wife used to work, however, the income of Ms Seema was stable vis-a-vis her husband's since she used to get fee at any cost within the rst ten days of every month. Her husband's income was solely contingent on the opportunity and was also barely half of what Ms Seema used to earn. The entire family lives in a shack in the impoverished neighborhood of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi. The fear coupled with precautionary measures compelled almost all parents to ask Ms Seema to quit visiting their houses.

This jolted the entire family of Ms Seema since they floundered about the monthly expenses. Both are out of work since the last week of February so the income has come to a standstill rather they have incurred debt since they need staples to survive. They owe substantial amount to the greengrocer, the grocer, the milkman etc. and are bafled how they would pay ou and are under perseverant strain. The government came up with a plan of Rs 12000/which seems a trivial amount in the prevalent inflationary pressures besides the ordeal of unemployment. This is just an isolated instance, which represents the entire impoverished community living in the shantytowns and shadow cities located in the suburbs of Karachi.

The last Thursday decision of the federal government of Pakistan to open up various sectors of economy in various phases and to ease the lockdown has not been ample to allay the fear of millions of families, which still dread the deadly virus. The abysmal economic growth has left the government with nothing but to take the decision to help millions who might be beseeching their bosses to resume the work so that they may get monthly wherewithal. The global output is projected to contract by 3% in 2020 and Pakistan's economy would contract by around 2% at the expense of the entire population of 210 million who are already undergoing the ordeal inflicted by the novel virus.

The nation could see the light at the end of the tunnel since certain sectors of the economy would be instrumental in terms of employment generation. Construction...