'Subaltern' refers to a person of inferior rank and is a term used in post-colonial studies to refer to the colonized, those who lack agency in society and access to social power.
The society in our world can be divided into two parts; the haves and the have not’s. To explain this there are two categories to keep in mind namely; the privileged or the rich, and the oppressed or the poor that get excluded because of this imbalance of finances and rights. This huge divide has created not only a feeling of insecurity among the oppressed it has also left them locked out of the prosperity enjoyed by the world’s minority.
The devaluation of the people is of incomparably greater significance than the devaluation of a Currency. Yet more attention is paid to the latter than the former. People are pulled apart by social and economic structures that de‐humanize, compartmentalize, destroy, humiliate, and blame. People are made to feel that lives are worth little, that their position at the bottom of the heap completely excludes and effectively dis-empowers them. Keeping this in context:
1) Do we allow charity to be a substitute for justice?
2) How can we, as an informed people, assert a global presence in addressing the causes of poverty and inequality?
3) How can we better hold national governments accountable for building a just society?
4) What steps can we take to analyze how our marginalized sisters and brothers see us?
Keeping the above points in mind, we are right to feel angry at the oppression of the poor and the excluded individuals of the society. Those who hold the reins of political and economic power in the world have literally pushed them to margins on the basis of false moralizing discourses that blame them and paint them as lazy and dysfunctional. The truth of the matter is that they are set apart by inequality of resources allocated to them by our societies. We don’t need to look or go far to find the structures of dispossession and exploitation. The forgotten ones, the excluded ones are here, where it hurts the most. Are our stomachs not churned at times when we feel the injustice and indignity suffered by our brothers and sisters as a result of oppressive structures? Don’t we tremble with indignation at the unhappiness suffered by these individuals? This should resonate strongly for us.
The social, economic and political exclusion is a systematic action that is done to people. It certainly does not sprout because of bad luck or bad choices or bad karma. It is in individual lives, every case is a unique intersection between a personal narrative, the axis of history and structure. There may be a dominant discourse on the existence and persistence of exclusion. It is a discourse that fundamentally keeps anonymous the people in terms of their collision with unjust structures and dehumanizing histories. It is this unfamiliar that leads to the term “homeless” that captures the entirety of a person’s story which denies the multi-dimensional class privilege to others in society.The disparity of wealth leads to some of the visible problems of today for example: Livelihood crisis, malnutrition, suicide, hunger deaths, brutality, dehumanization and a break of human spirit in everyday life. Where the poor go on empty stomachs, in tattered clothes; hoping of a life in dignity.
With the modern world and its new technical advancements, computerized efficiencies, mechanical mastering has also contributed to this divide between classes. In my view, people with less or no education previously used to do labor manually specially in the industrial and agricultural sector. New introductions of robotic facilities have reduced the human input and more machine work is being encouraged. Threshers, Harvesters have taken over manual work; industries too have substituted human help to machines. Such steps forward into the new era have left the labor class in particular years behind and no jobs in hand.
Discussing different cases with regards to Pakistan, feudalism or land lords have been dominant in the Pakistani rural society. Throughout history, feudalism has appeared in different forms. The feudal prototype in Pakistan consists of landlords with large joint families possessing hundreds or even thousands of acres of land. They seldom make any direct contribution to agricultural production. Instead, all work is done by peasants or tenants who live at subsistence level. The peasants working for them end up being prisoners or slaves for the rest of their lives. Many generations have been suppressed by this post colonial system, families after families have been subjugated in a systematic manner for never to utter a single word in front of the feudal. The wives and daughters of these peasants are kept has house maids and servants, looking after the ladies of the landlord. The peasant children are deprived of basic health facilities and education.
The poor peasants are forced to stay on bare minimum, marriages of their daughters and sons are welcomed provided they borrow the money from the landlord. They are never able to pay back the borrowed money from the peanut salary they receive as wages for their services; it’s a vicious circle that entraps their lives into more misery.
Landlord, who is the possessor of vast amounts of land and human resource, is powerful in the distribution of water, fertilizers, tractor permits, agricultural credit and a complete influence on the regional police station or ‘thana.’ The local judiciary and revenue automatically come under his influence. The landlord behaves as mini god on Earth with absolute power in his hands he is not only corrupt himself but also encourages the whole system of that area to get adulterated in this effect. The feudal system thus becomes a degrading human system.
Excessive wealth and power gets to the head for the feudal in which they carry an attitude of selfishness and arrogance. Virtues of life such as honesty, justice, learning and respect for law totally disappear. Having such attitudes; these feudal head for: the key posts in the civil service, armed forces, business, industry and politics. Making way, like an octopus; with its extended numerous arms in to the society to further corrupt the system. A great share of worsened moral, social, economic and political crisis today can be attributed to the powerful feudal system operating in Pakistan.
A few thousand feudal families with connections in the power house of the country have hijacked the majority of the population. Zamindars, Jagirdars, Nawabs, Nawabzadas, and Sardars have been in the strong hold since the inception of Pakistan. They are armed with the monopoly of political and economic power with majority of the feudal oriented political parties; they constitute two thirds of the National Assembly with most of the key posts in the provinces held by them.
The Authoritative streak of the feudal personality is like oxygen to him/her which in consequence evaporates freedom of thought, speech and expression in their subjects. As a result; social inequalities and injustices prevail in the society.
With this huge disparity of rights and injustices, in reaction, the subjugated people turn to criminal activities like theft, robbery, prostitution, becoming full time dacoits or lean over to addiction. They are forced to take law in their hands due to the unfortunate circumstances that surround them. Such dacoits are many times employed by the same feudal for protection against the deprived people, to harass them further with force through these law breakers. In short it is a vicious circle of cruelty and subjugation.
The police station is under the influence and guidance of the local landlord. No complaint or a case can be registered against anyone unless the landlord gives permission for it. Decisions are taken in the local “Panchayat” which again is at the mercy of the landlord. In cases where people do not listen to the decision taken by Panchayat, a fabricated case is registered against them. The police with the backing of the local landlord go after such individuals with extreme vengeance. Once apprehended by the police, peasants and labor class suffer torture at the hands of the police, both mental and physical, police using the basic domestic violence techniques and blunt tools. The body parts most frequently targeted for battering are buttocks, foot soles, back and front of thighs, palms and wrists. In such cases the most common tool to inflict severe pain is the cane stick and a broad flat leather slipper dipped in mustard oil commonly known as the “Chhitthar.” The socio-economic helplessness of the peasants and labor make them an easy prey for the police.
The poor people are forced to vote for these feudal in the elections both for the Provincial and National level. Unfortunately, once elected their rural subjects come under more pressure for money, job, health and security. They become a part of the Government once elected their voters turn to these feudal again for their problems rather than the Government machinery. In my view; 70% of the problems on the domestic front of Pakistan, start from the corrupted Thana system. It is a universally held acclaim that true democratic system cannot be build-up without first strengthening the Police system, which could effectively maintain law and order as effective administration is worthless without it. The ruling clique should strive to make police system professional, service-oriented and accountable to the people, having inbuilt mechanisms to curb illegitimate political interference; while enhancing police accountability through civilian oversight.
Another case in this is the treatment of women in the rural Pakistan. Maltreatment of women starts from our male dominated society where the perception of woman is that of having a relatively low key role of child bearer, a home maker an asset. It is a common knowledge that in the rural areas of Pakistan law of jungle prevails, women of course are treated like property, similar to a land or a cow or a tube well.
The unwritten powers of the feudal in the rural areas make the plight of women a lot worse. The feudal has a claim on everything on his land whether living or dead. The claims surely include sexual assault, rape on various age groups of poor village females summoned to their Dera’s or fortresses for the male’s young and old, for their visitors too for perverted pleasures. Years of submission and cruelty has conditioned these women to accept whatever ill happens in their lives. Not to ever raise their voice, point a finger on the sadist perpetrators who are known in the society as respected landlords. One shudders to think of all the tyrannies these simple poor peasant women have to endure. They are suffering both mentally and physically when judgments are made on their character and fates with nothing more to do than a pious silence. How these women feel the shame, anguish and humiliation on seeing their criminals walk free, these callous people trumpeting their achievements.
The rural women of Pakistan are actively involved in her daily work which comprises of cooking, cleaning, and other domestic chores; they are also greatly involved in the agricultural sector. Crop production weeding, grass cutting, cotton stick collection, livestock rearing, rural women are engaged in both domestic and commercial aspects of the society. Women are also expected to collect wood from the nearby fields to be used as a fuel for cooking. Her farm activities keep her busy with taking care of the livestock, milking, milk processing and preparation of ghee.
Women are responsible for looking after the livestock, cleaning the sheds, watering and milking the animals preparing dung cakes that fetch in extra income for the family. A labor Survey of Pakistan in 2007/2008 revealed that stall feeding of animals is done by 35% of the females, whereas milking, processing into ghee is done by 60% of women and preparation of dung cakes are done by 90% .Shed cleaning is done by 90% women and watering of the animals is done by70% of the females.
In the cotton picking farms; women work from sun up to sunset. Pesticides on the cotton crop by the landlords, exposes these women to extensive poisonous chemicals which form into acute allergies of the skin. With ailments and improper medical facilities these women are surrounded by health hazards, over load of work and die untreated. In the burning months of May/July their frail bodies transplant rice crop with sweltering heat from dawn till dusk, the landlords do not provide with umbrellas, hats or hand gloves for protection against such a hostile weather.
Pakistani girls and women spend hours in bringing clean water for drinking and laundry. Not only are these tasks hard and laborious they also rob girls opportunity to study to flourish in life.
The impact of feudalism, and the poverty it gives rise to, is poorly documented, but six months after the most devastating floods of 2010 in the country’s history, with Sindh Province worst hit, a provincial government report based on a survey conducted with UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) support, has revealed a grave nutritional crisis. The survey has found a global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 23.1 percent in children aged 6-59 months in flood-affected areas of northern Sindh and 21.2 percent in southern Sindh - rates above the World Health Organization’s 15 percent emergency threshold level.
According to Andro Shilakadze, a senior UNICEF field officer in Sindh, told, “The women of Sindh have suffered like this for thousands of years due to the feudal system in the province, and of course the mother’s health affects the child.” On another instance, James King’ori, nutrition cluster coordinator for UNICEF, told from Islamabad: “Women, particularly of child-bearing age (15-49), have an increased nutritional requirement to not only maintain their body growth, enable daily chore undertaking but also to support pregnancy and breastfeeding of infants. Addressing poverty in a strategic manner to benefit women is key,” he said. Such a huge contribution; in terms of physical and mental stress, the peasant/labor women’s role as yet not been recognized in the society.
According to Andro Shilakadze, a senior UNICEF field officer in Sindh, told, “The women of Sindh have suffered like this for thousands of years due to the feudal system in the province, and of course the mother’s health affects the child.” On another instance, James King’ori, nutrition cluster coordinator for UNICEF, told from Islamabad: “Women, particularly of child-bearing age (15-49), have an increased nutritional requirement to not only maintain their body growth, enable daily chore undertaking but also to support pregnancy and breastfeeding of infants. Addressing poverty in a strategic manner to benefit women is key,” he said. Such a huge contribution; in terms of physical and mental stress, the peasant/labor women’s role as yet not been recognized in the society.
Eunuchs in Pakistan too have a miserable tale of injustices and suppression. The third gender or commonly known as Hijras in the local terminology are unable to lead normal lives or produce offspring. Most of them are close to men but they prefer to be identified with feminine rather than masculine. They adorn themselves with make-up, lipstick, kajol, dressed in bright colorful shalwar kamiz with dupatta covering their heads, earrings and necklaces; they roam the busy market place of a city in groups to gather earnings out of begging or giving a view of their typical dancing style. They speak in male voices with a unique way of clap palms meeting crossways, looking for a new prey every time a passerby comes in way.
The third gender has received a lot of criticism, suspicion and looked down upon by the society. As soon as a child in the rural areas specially is declared a Eunuch it is handed over to the community leader which is led by a ‘Guru’ or the master. They all live like a family with true bonding for each other. Every time there is a new entry to this clan they celebrate outdoors with feast, songs and dance as rituals to welcome a new entry, with the blessings of the Guru who is taken as a fatherly/motherly figure. For the proper upbringing of the newest member into the clan the Guru takes charge and inculcates the proper traditions and customs followed by the clan to the new hijra. He is given love and support from his new adopted family fed, clothed looked after well so he feels secure.
Previously people used to call them on wedding celebrations, child births or simply to give away charity but now since the troubled times in Pakistan their opportunity to earn an honest living is slowly diminishing. Due to this they are reduced to begging on the streets of metropolises, or sparingly asked to come on a wedding for dance and in dire consequences even forced into prostitution. The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered that they be protected from police harassment, be eligible for a separate gender category on ID cards and be recognized under inheritance laws. In addition to the order for government recognition, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry also issued a warning that the hijras' rights of inheritance, which are often informally ignored, would be enforced. Such a landmark decision still leaves them unfortunately the excluded people of the society since people categorize them with general concept that "They pollute people's morality." The stigma attached to them since then has left them increasingly vulnerable to theft, attack and abuse in Pakistan's male-dominated and often-feudal society.
Physically handicapped or disabled people and are 92% dependent on their family members 74% are illiterate and 69% are below the poverty line. It is estimated that out of the population of 180 million Pakistani’s 5% to 10% of them are disabled. They face problems while commuting from place to another because nothing is facilitated in public transport and shopping areas. They face barriers in employment, health care facilities, and education. They are considered burden to their families. Suffering of the mentally handicapped in the urban and rural areas needs to be look into as well as there is lack of health facilities and social work. Severely mentally retarded people are either chained or locked in rooms for years. Slightly better in state end up beggars or they are left on shrines as their final abode. It is vital that their existence and rights are realized in the society.
The President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Zardari inaugurated on the 10th August 2009 Special Computerized National Identity Card) scheme for disabled persons. Special Persons got this Special CNIC from any of NADRA offices (National Database and Registration Authority) throughout Pakistan How can we take actions for a better society? The solutions lie within if we apply good governance to the existing institutions.
1). Rule of law must be made supreme for all irrespective of what background one comes from. More than 80% of the problems faced by the oppressed can be resolved this way. The police should be well paid and under no institutional interference. Catching and apprehending a culprit becomes more efficient this way. Police transfers and appointments should be done by the institution itself with no recommendations taken either by the President or the Prime Minister of the country.
2). Feudalism should be abolished in Pakistan with immediate effect. 90% of the problems will be resolved once this system is collapsed by the Government.
3). Education should be a top priority for all the citizens of the country. The meager 2.2% of the GDP is totally not sufficient for the nation. System of education should be one in the country and till the 10th grade it should be made compulsory on all. Students and young people should be encouraged and given the chance to enroll in classes that teach skilled trades such as construction, welding and plumbing. Child labor should ban and the ones found guilty in this heinous crime should be punished severely.
4). Health facilities need to be improved on war footing. With the 75% deprived of medical cure the Government needs to spend more on this sector for the betterment of the citizens. Hospitals should be better equipped with proper medical care and staff in uniformity throughout the country.
5). Increase in minimum wage and unemployment allowances should be set up for the poor and labor class.
The innocent people of Pakistan need a better chance in life. Under present scenario of a forced imposed war on Pakistan which has left the economy crumbled and has increased the sufferings of common man specially the above mentioned category of people more oppressed and excluded.
An ideal society where; equality is maintained, justice is in balance, and where people feel secure to live in. The economy must enable all the citizens of our country to enjoy a rising standard of living. This will demand of all sectors of the economy - state-owned, private, and co-operative to allocate resources and implement policies in keeping with this common national requirement. Such a society isn’t an unachievable one; for I believe with love and conviction we can definitely bring a change into the present scenario. We must commit ourselves to carrying at least a few grains of sand as hope to the building site of a new society.
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