The writer is a freelance columnist and former
newspaper editor
How
is news determined? This question is highly pertinent. While statements by
politicians continue to make news, we need to ask what our real concerns are,
and why we are so indifferent to the true needs of people.
The
reality depicted on television screens really has very little to do with the
lives and priorities of citizens. In fact the agenda used to set news has
distorted the way we look at our world and determine what is happening within
it.
The
endless talk shows on television simply distract people from issues far larger
than the misdeeds of politicians. It is true mis-governance has a great deal to
do with the condition of these people, but it is this situation too that has
persisted decade after decade that needs to be highlighted and brought into the
mainstream of life.
Otherwise
we will get nowhere at all, no matter what efforts charities, individuals or
other organisations make at their own level.
Here
are some facts. In our country, a continuous deterioration in the food security
situation over the past three years means people have been living in a gravely
food insecure condition since 2009.
If
we accept that food is the most basic need of life, we might begin to
comprehend the magnitude of the situation.
Memogate,
the NRO case and all else mean little to those whose main worry is putting
together a meal; and this should be a worry for others too.
The
crisis continues to worsen. According to Edhi Foundation, there has been a
visible increase in the number of people who turn up at its free feeding
centres.
The
charitable foundation-largest in the country-provides free food to thousands
daily. Those who work there claim that today even people from the
‘middle-class’ come for food, sitting down quietly at the centres and keeping
their eyes cast down.
Yet
all this does not make media headlines. Indeed we rarely hear of it-taking the
news of the occasional suicide caused by poverty in our stride, ignoring
figures that show a yearly increase in suicides rates.
Most
of us barely think about what hunger means, or how it affects people. Unlike
flooding or an earthquake, it is an insidious, invisible crisis. Or perhaps
then we simply choose not to look.
In
a December 2011 report, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) stated: “out of 56
million people living in Pakistan’s urban areas, about 21 million are now
deemed food insecure.
“Majority
of the rural population is facing food insecurity including malnutrition, under
nutrition, hunger, etc. The population consuming less than 1700 calories per
day, which is far below the international levels, has increased from 35 million
to 45 million during last couple of years.”
In
an April 2012 report, SBP reported that 37 percent of the urban population was
food insecure and warned the government to “reduce the risk of a severe
hunger-like situation.” These figures suggest a consistent rise in hunger.
A
2009 report on food insecurity in Pakistan, prepared by the World Food
Programme, the Islamabad-based Sustainable Policy Development Institute (SDPI)
and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation had found that
countrywide, 48.6 percent of the population was food insecure and 22.4 percent
was “extremely” food insecure.
Experts
believe that the situation has become worse for people since 2009, mainly due
to rapid price increases. In view of the indicators coming in, and in order to
devise future policy, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, WFP
and SDPI are now conducting a new Food Security Analysis for 2012, in collaboration
with the FAO and UNICEF.
The
2011 National Nutrition Survey found that 58 percent of the households were
food insecure. It also notes widespread child malnutrition, with women also
badly hit.
The
cost of consumer items, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index maintained by
the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, rose by 9.6 percent in July 2012 as compared
to the same month the previous year. The State Bank of Pakistan has also noted
a consistent inflationary trend since 2011.
Government
programmes, including the Rs. 1,000 stipend offered by the Benazir Income
Support Programme (BISP) to millions of families, may make at least some
difference to a few people.
But
people remain acutely concerned about their situation and unconvinced by government
schemes. Flaws and obstacles of many kinds have been reported.
The
degree of hunger is reflected in global studies. The Washington-based
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in its’ Global Hunger
Index for 2011 notes the hunger situation in Pakistan remains ‘alarming’ as was
the case last year.
The
index is based on three factors: malnutrition, child underweight levels and
child mortality. Ratings run from 0 to 100 percent hunger, with no country
falling in either extreme category.
Pakistan
has a hunger rating between 20 and 29 percent. The report notes that hunger in
Pakistan has grown over the last decade. While there is enough food, people
lack the purchasing power to obtain it.
The
present situation has compelled individuals to step in. Parveen Saeed, a
housewife who began a small-scale food provision programme in Karachi called
‘khana ghar’ (house of food) in 2002 after reading about a woman who had killed
her children rather than watching them starve, is among them.
But
people like Parveen can only help a few. Eventually it is the state that needs
to take responsibility for the state of its citizens, and there is no evidence
at all that it has the will or commitment to do so. The lack of pressure from
the media or other lobby groups makes it easier for it to do so.
The
government and the state must not be allowed to get away with this. Solutions
are required, strategy needs to be re-thought and the whole structure rattled.
Development
has to be made a key concern, issues linked to it have to be made a priority,
otherwise we will see a population fading further and further into misery, with
indifference to their plight from most quarters.
Email:
kamilahyat@hotmail.com
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