Are you not entitled to any help until the tales of your misery become talk of the town?
Recently, video of a child went viral on social media where he could be seen sitting next to a shoe-polishing kit on a snow-covered footpath in Quetta. The heartbreaking scenes prompted immediate support from the provincial government.
But think of the many children whose travails are yet to be captured by video cameras.
Or at least for a moment ponder over the busy bazaars or deserted streets, small huts over the mountains or heaps of filth near the seashore, where you will invariably see little children barely 5-10 years old selling fruits or flowers, searching garbage dumps and nudging passers-by for a few bucks. These kids have no one to provide for them.
Thus, they have to go through various ordeals only to procure a commodity that should have been a guaranteed right.
On the contrary, food is a rare luxury item for these kids and their families.
The poor lads spend their days in pursuit of a loaf of bread, often being content in getting hold of the food left over and thrown away by the others. Poverty has forced them into such a deplorable state of living when they should be attending school and playing games while the rest is taken care of.
Yet, a majority of these children would spend many a night with empty stomachs, wailing in hunger every night before going to bed; the bed for some of them being the earth under the open sky. Regrettably, a large part of the population has little or no access to food, resulting in widespread malnourishment.
World Food Program estimates that 20.5 percent of the population in Pakistan is undernourished and 44 percent of children under 5 are stunted. Sympathizing with their hardships is easy. But understanding the underlying causes of their poverty is a real challenge. And the task of finding workable solutions all the more difficult.
But the easiest way out is to dump everything on the government. As if no such thing as social responsibility ever existed. And that too in a country that prides itself on the Islamic ideals of brotherhood, good-neighborliness and social justice.
Why wait for a video to go viral until it is taken notice of by the powers that be?
And why make a video at all?
Why not just help a needy person there and then without hurting his self-esteem by making a video and uploading it on social media for the entire world to see.
So many people must have seen the little child shivering with cold. Some may have gotten their shoes polished from him. And someone made the film that went viral.
But did anyone help?
Surely, we can do a lot more to soften the pains of our poor communities than simply filming their tragedies, sharing them online and criticizing the government for not doing enough.
The entire concept of community development is founded upon collective action by members of a community to address problems common to their locality. It also betrays a sense of social responsibility wherein people collaborate to find solutions to shared problems.
The rich residents of a locality can contribute in many ways towards uplifting the poor among them. From providing food and medicines to financing the education of children belonging to poor families they can serve humanity by coming to the aid of their immediate neighbors.
Every day so much of the food we cook at home goes to waste. We are also in the habit of saving some of it as an extra dish for breakfast the next day.
Why not gift the extra food to those parents, not far away from your homes, whose little children are dying of hunger?
Similarly, we spend so much of our money to decorate ourselves according to the latest fashion.
Why not spend a few extra bucks to gift a warm jacket to a poor child shivering and dying of the cold?
Nonetheless, this is not to understate or downplay the responsibility of the State in fulfilling the basic needs of each and every person in the country.
But only to highlight that human misery comes in different shades. Our response too must encompass all possible measures.
Instead of playing politics on the pain and suffering of the poor by making it a concern of only one party, government or individual, each one of us has a part to play in trying to ease their pains.
Also read:Addressing critical needs of children through child-friendly budgeting
