Majority low income people prefer jobs, training over 'Benazir Income Support':survey

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: Majority of the people, contacted by The News, say they do not want small subsidies through the Benazir Income Support Programme but instead want jobs and skill training for a sustained income. They said they did not want to live permanently in poverty.

“Look at the house and count the number of holes. Look at my utensils and the clothes that I am wearing. Everything you see explains poverty which is humiliation. We are being forced to accept rudeness, insults and indifference when we seek help,” said a poor labourer trying to qualify for BISP support.

He said jobs were waning. “My son lost his job in a knitwear factory and currently he and his family are dependent on my income,” he said, adding “as a daily wager he misses work at least thrice a week.”

He said BISP support would not resolve my problems but re-employment of my son was the only viable solution. “This cannot happen until the industries that have been closed restart.” Gul Khan, a night watchman in Garhi Shahu, said “for a poor person everything is terrible including illness, humiliation and shame. We are afraid of everything, we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of.”

Khan, whose age has crossed 60 years with health deteriorating, complained of not being able to get treatment from any government hospital. He said he could not afford treatment from private doctors. For him, health is the main issue that the government should resolve in the next budget.

Allah Dad, who is working at a small unregistered factory, said “if I consider how other people live, then I feel poor because I cannot give my child what he needs. If an employed individual still has to worry about buying his or her child bread and has to struggle to make ends meet this is not normal.”

Allah Dad, who gets Rs4,000 per month, said most of the workers in private firms were denied minimum wage of Rs6,000 per month. Even if he got the support of Rs1,000 per month under the BISP, he said, his income would still remain below the minimum wage fixed by the government.

“Instead of doling out subsidies which the poor get after too much effort, the government should ensure that at least the minimum wage fixed by it is provided to every worker.” For Hajiran Bibi, who lost her husband, a vegetable seller, in a bomb blast a few months ago, Rs1,000 per month is too small. She said she was afraid of sending her children to work for fear of losing them in similar circumstances.

She said for her the sense of protection, peace and security was more important than government’s meagre support and wanted her children to exploit their potential without fear of terror attacks.

Nobel laureate Sen has frequently argued that absolute poverty includes what Adam Smith called “the ability to go about without shame”. Poor people repeatedly stress the anxiety and fear they experience because they feel insecure and vulnerable.

They describe security as stability and continuity of livelihood, predictability of relationships, feeling safe and belonging to a social group. Security is peace of mind and the possibility to sleep relaxed.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178260