By Anoshia Majeed
This global pandemic has brought upon some challenging times for the entire world at once. Big economies like China, United Stated, Italy, Spain and France are facing major losses daily due to the lockdowns and economic activity shutdowns. But since these nations have strong foundations in terms of GDP growth and overall stable business revenues, they will soon emerge out of COVID-19 depression. However, the real worrisome situation is for developing countries like Pakistan where the economic condition is already so unstable and poor that sustaining a lockdown even for a day can result in huge losses.
Majority of the population lives below poverty and survives on daily wages. With the 15-day lockdown announced by most provincial governments, the real question is now whether people will survive from the virus or die from hunger? It’s been a few days of lockdown and already many poor laborers are out of jobs or sent home on unpaid leaves forcibly as factories, Industries, offices and small businesses like salons, restaurants, event planners have shut down their operations. For this huge segment of our population now daily survival, feeding their children 2 meals or paying rent for the month seems impossible. Many have turned to charity organizations for Zakat and ration in order to make it through the day barely but each passing day is turning out more painful and stressful for those who earn a daily living to feed their children. It’s unfortunate that they are being deprived of their basic right to earn a living and are made to survive on donations and charity solely.
Even though government is trying to facilitate their best, but this vast majority cannot be covered with any aid alone, this is the time for all of us to support and uplift this segment of society. It’s time to prove humanity comes first and we should all re-prioritize our expenditures for the year, one less fine dining experience, one less vacation, one less designer outfit, one less branded accessory, one less extravagant party or one less expensive item can even safe many lives. Allah SWT has given us a chance to prove that humanity comes first. Let’s be humans again and beat the real virus i.e. the greed within us.
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