Double U Blog

Almost half the world’s population — about 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day (source). To get things into perspective, that’s approximately Rs. 200 (Pakistani), roughly the same cost as chicken, which we eat almost daily. 74% of the population of Pakistan lives under $2/day according to a 2002 study (WDI, 2006; source); that number can only have risen in the last 6 years.

Nearly a billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation — I could go on, but I’d rather point you to a site where you can read some excellently presented (read: pretty charts and pie diagrams) poverty facts and statistics as well as other great eye-openers relating to poverty and the efforts against it (at globalissues.org).

Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom.

For many people in developing countries, acute poverty means difficulty making a living, as well as a lack of basic services in education and health. In Pakistan, lack of access to credit, training in income-generating activities, basic social services and infrastructure are critical factors behind the persistence of substantial poverty, especially in under-served rural and urban areas.

– Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund Project, World Bank

It’s a sad fact but it’s something everyone must admit — we have a tendency to avoid, even outright ignore the cold hard facts staring in our face when it comes to such a grim topic as poverty. We read an article, listen to someone on TV and maybe sometimes we pause and reflect afterward on how hard it must be to live on a few hundred Rupees everyday with prices climbing the way they are. We think about it and frown — but in the end we move on. One blog calls it the empathy deficit.

We always look at poverty–and those stricken by it–as coming from far away places; people we don’t really know so we don’t feel empathic, problems we don’t really care about because we’ve never felt them ourselves. The widow mother of 6 children (all under 15) who has cancer can’t be from my neighborhood; the family of 5 that earns a collective amount of Rs. 3000 a month aren’t my problem. After all, things like that don’t happen here. Places like Africa, South America sure, but surely not here, so close to home! The truth can’t be farther from it. (Note: both cases are true stories from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan).

Granted, poverty in Pakistan isn’t of such a degree as Africa and South America  – or maybe it isn’t highlighted as much. But think about the cleaning woman hired in your house — almost every middle-class and above house in Pakistan now has at least one person employed to look after things like sweeping, dusting etc. How much does she earn from each house she works in? Can you imagine your lifestyle with that kind of income?

I think the biggest hurdle in our way even when we do choose to act on the feeling of empathy is the question we often don’t have an answer to: Can I really make a difference? Will my effort really help? I think the answer is a big fat YES. I guess what we need to understand is that we can’t do this alone. We have to work together, otherwise everything is in vain. An ant doesn’t move a cookie to inside its anthill by itself — no, what they do is break it up and each any plays its own part by taking a small peice back to the hill. Little by little, the whole cookie is back and they have enough to feed everyone. It’s the same way with poverty and how we can get rid of it, or at least try to get rid of it.

Poverty is a global issue, something we all need to work on to fix. The fact remains that this is a real problem. Please think about doing anything you can do to help: donate your old clothes to places like Edhi or Chhipa; buy a bag of wheat for your maasi (cleaning woman); help out at some charity or contribute what you can to a food bank. Again, it doesn’t have to be a huge contribution worth millions of rupees to make a difference. If we can all play out tiny part, working together, we can make a difference.

Oh, and by the way. Please don’t read this and forget about it. Act on it. I’m resolving to at least make a conscious effort to identify things I can help out with – I don’t know what or how I’ll do it exactly, but of this I am certain: I will play my part, however tiny it may be.