The land where hunger lives

We hear stories every day of how people live — and die. In households across the country, there are families who survive on only "roti" and water with almost nothing else to eat.

Others have made tea a staple in their homes, for both children and adults. Naturally, the lack of nutrition will lead to further stunting and wasting in a nation where at least 50% of children are already stunted and wasted.

All this is happening in a land that still claims to be mainly agricultural. Yet, the sector is so badly managed that we have accounts of wheat rotting in flooded fields, partly because there is not enough storage and because the government, in its profound wisdom, decided to import wheat from Ukraine despite forecasts of a bumper crop at home.

Sugarcane stories are even better known, with farmers encouraged to grow the crop despite mills having no room to keep it. The result is an increase in exports, with mill owners earning more money as sugar barons usually buy from farmers at lower rates.

In other places, tomatoes either rot or are fed to cattle because there is no efficient way to get them to markets. Similar stories lead to disruptions in the supply chain because of which food items fail to reach people in time or at affordable rates. The same issue plagues the growth of lentils, a basic food item in many households. The item is not grown in sufficient numbers in the country and therefore must be imported, mainly from Canada.

This is despite the fact that regions such as Jacobabad and parts of Rajanpur offer the perfect climate for the growth of lentils. There should be no need for imports. Yet, most of us consume imported lentils because there is no choice.

When we talk of nutrition, it is important to start at the very beginning. A much-needed effort to set up a bank carrying breast milk for either preterm children or those whose mothers are either sick or die during childbirth in a country where maternal mortality is 186 for every 100,000 live births has been shot down by clerics.

With around 50% of women suffering from varying degrees of malnutrition, they are often unable to meet nutritional requirements during pregnancy, increasing the risk of complications such as low birth weight and premature birth, necessitating the use of milk banks to support their infant’s nutritional needs.

After initial approval by at least some institutions, clerics now argue that a milk bank could later lead to complications at the time of marriage, such as children who have been fed by one mother entering into wedlock. Doctors who have worked for over a decade to set up the milk bank and other experts argue that an entry into Nadra database could easily prevent such an event from taking place.

As hunger overtakes more and more households, leading in some cases to desperate measures such as the removal of children, and especially girls, from schools, we ask why people do not come out and protest.

There are protests of some kind in many places. Incidents like mobile phone snatching, notably in Karachi but also in other urban centres, are one sign of the desperation of people who need to eat. So are the robberies that take place at homes where weddings are being organised sinceculprits know they can get jewellery there.

The situation shows no signs of improvement, with Pakistan ranking 99th on the Global Hunger Index and being named as one of the five countries where stunting rates are on the rise.

But we do not see people taking to the streets. Why is this the case? In other countries like Brazil and other nations in Africa, people have come out in protest long before things reached the situation where they now stand in Pakistan. There can be multiple answers. It is possible that people have become apathetic and now believe that nothing can help them. But this is also a flawed argument.

There have been protests after all, with people burning hugely inflated utility bills they cannot afford. There have also been protests over food due to lack of media coverage, discouraging people from coming out more often.

Perhaps the most important factor, however, is the lack of a vanguard of any kind. There is no political party taking up the issue as a major part of its agenda. If such a party or group existed, it would have easily organised protests.

Whereas riots are not desirable, they may in some cases be the only answer rather than allowing infants and young children to die of hunger or for mothers to put aside their food so others in the family can eat.

The situation, without doubt, is a desperate one. Yet ministers continue to drive lavish cars and lead lifestyles that would embarrass many leaders in far more developed countries. After all, Scandinavian prime ministers and even monarchs cycle to work almost daily. Austerity to some degree on the part of our leadership is vital to sending the right message and encouraging property tycoons, businesses, and others with wealth and influence to follow.

This is not happening, and the danger is that Pakistan will ultimately explode into some kind of unmanageable situation. At present, there may be little sign that this is happening. But it is beginning to seem with each passing day that people will eventually have no choice. We already see protests in the peripheries, such as those in Balochistan for the rights of people there and in Gilgit-Baltistan. The mainland will follow soon.

Young people in particular, who form the majority of the population, are quite visibly angered and distressed. With a government that seems unable or unwilling to hear the still-silent cries of the deprived, the choice may only be to take more violent measures to stop the situation from worsening further.

The International Monetary Fund after all has never helped countries in the kind of distress Pakistan faces. Indeed, it is known for demanding even harsher measures to prevent help from being offered to impoverished people.

We have seen too much misery already. How long this can go on is now the question that needs to be answered. Surely the answer is that it has continued for so long and that people will realise they must react in one way or another.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: [email protected]

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

Originally published in The News