’Eating one meal’, ‘can’t send kids to school’: How common man in Pakistan fighting raging inflation
We used to eat three times, but now,… we cook once and eat it thrice, one said
Pakistan's weekly inflation have surged above 40% and citizens are finding it difficult to cover the most basic necessities like food and education. To tackle the situation, people claim that they are ‘eating less’ and ‘travelling less’ to survive on a day-to-day basis.
Rukhsana Bibi, who works as domestic help, earns a meagre Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 from every home she works at. “What we earn in a month, our expenses are double that,” she said adding, “We are eating less, travelling less.”
“Wheat flour is barely available. Our kids stand in line for days to get one sack of aata (Wheat flour), and that too is expensive.”
“We used to eat three times, but now, we eat only one meal. We cook once and eat it thrice. Even children's are getting desparate,” she said, listing ways she, like millions of other working-class persons.
Fuel prices in country has skyrocketed, including a Rs22.20 jump in petrol and a Rs17.20 hike in diesel rates. And this has hit hard Ali, who now finds it difficult to travel to his village to meet his family.
“Earlier, we could travel to Karachi [from Nawabshah] for Rs700 to Rs800. Now, the bus drivers demand up to Rs1500,” he added, as reported by Dawn Newspaper.
“They have made our life impossible. If we buy one thing (ingredient), we can’t buy the second (ingredient,” he stated.
Adding that his income has not changed in the last three years despite the exponential rise in prices, he complained he cannot afford to send his eight children to school.
Nadeem Uddin Siddique, who owns a small shop, said small businesses have been impacted the most by the inflatickiling on. “I am a businessman and my business has been greatly affected] (due to inflation). My weekly investment of Rs50,000 has increased to Rs100,000,” he explained.
“We are shrinking ourselves. If we had four cups of tea before, now we have one,” he continued.
Will there will be relief in recent future?
As per economists, the recent floods that destroyed a significant portion of agricultural land and caused a shortage of food supply, along with tax increases announced by the Finance Minister, are considered major reasons for the current inflationary trend in the country.
However, they are hoping, the increased taxes on cigarettes and general sales, along with hikes in natural gas and fuel prices, are expected to generate revenue and balance the budget, bringing the country closer to an IMF deal.
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Business NewsNewsWorld’Eating one meal’, ‘can’t send kids to school’: How common man in Pakistan fighting raging inflation
First Published:3 Mar 2023, 06:05 PM IST
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