“Beyond Economics: Unpacking the Roots of Inequality in Pakistan”

In Pakistan, equality is not just about money. it is tied to our culture, social norms, politics, and religious beliefs. From strict gender roles to accepting poverty as fate, these factors all play a part in why true equality in Pakistan remains out of reach.

The Multifaceted Nature of Inequality

Equality is based on economic resources and social, political, legal, cultural, environmental, and interpersonal. All these factors directly influence the financial factor.

Cultural Factors and Overpopulation

If we talk about the cultural one, it is induced in Pakistani culture from the very beginning that a child comes into this world by taking his own ‘Rizq’ (food), and that is the main reason that we are facing extended overpopulation, as I discussed in my previous blog [https://contropulse.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3135&action=edit]. Bangladesh controlled its population by training Maulvis (religious scholars) in population management. In contrast, our population kept increasing for 76 years. Due to the extended population, people cannot even provide basic needs to their children in the lower middle and middle class because there is always a one-breed winner with several children. As a result, their children face severe malnutrition from their teenage and suffer from many diseases. Also, the extreme children are laboring in the lower middle class having no interest in education, and in the middle class, parents get stuck in academic finances.

Fatalism and Religious Narratives

People do not want to change their situations at all because they believe that it’s their fate that they were born poor, so their whole life gets stuck in poverty and they make no efforts to get a better life. This cultural factor has been mixed with many religious narratives like ‘poor will get a reward in heaven after facing multiple issues in this world because this world is temporary’, ‘rich will give strict tests about the spending of their money’, and ‘poor will achieve heaven before rich’, and many more.

phrases like “Sabr kro” (have patience) and “Allah ki marzi” (God’s will) are commonly used to console those facing hardships by emphasizing that their struggles are divinely obtained and must be endured rather than overcome. it is most common in rural areas and lower-income neighborhoods where people often rely on local religious leaders and traditional beliefs that reinforce the idea that their current life is a test.

Gender Inequality

Within social disparities, there is gender inequality in education and employment, women get paid less than men in working areas for the same work. The question is, ‘If women get paid less for the same work then why companies do not hire women only to save money?’ I believe that if women get the job in all the positions, they will come into power. Everything will automatically come into their control and this thing triggers the patriarchal societies like Pakistan. Another effect of a patriarchal society is, that people no matter how much they survive for food, do not like to make their women breed winners. It is considered highly unacceptable for their masculinity even if they have a large family and one male who earns.

Intolerance and Discrimination

In political factors, we are so intolerant towards ethnic and religious minorities that we do not want to give them a space to showcase their talent or skills in working areas. We always discriminate against them and try our best to give them inferior jobs, due to which, political instability increases. Jogendranath Mandol’s resignation[1] letter (foundation, 1950) is proof of our unacceptance. People cannot even tolerate the people of the same religious groups like the conflict between Shia and Sunni, so how would they accept other minorities? Additionally, our legal and justice system is fragile, rules and laws are for the weak and poor, and it takes the whole life of the poor class to get results of their cases if it is against any rich. People in Pakistan do not even have freedom of expression and even there is no transparency in democracy.

Economic Challenges

Moreover, high unemployment low wages, and lack of social, political, and economic organization for low-income populations also create problems. As per Lewis, in the culture of poverty, people produce little wealth and receive little in return. Chronic unemployment and underemployment, low wages, lack of property and savings, absence of food reserves at home, and a chronic shortage of cash keep families and individuals trapped in a cycle of poverty (Levis, October 1966). So individuals growing up in this culture feel fatalistic, helpless, dependent, and inferior. Other traits may include weak ego structure, oral fixation, confusion of sexual identity, and a strong focus on the present with little concern for the future (Levis, October 1966).

The Cycle of Exploitation

Having all these gaps led the poor to worry only about basic needs like food and shelter, denying the importance of education as having not enough resources for it, so how would they even talk about equality? As James Scott’s “power of the weak” (Scott, 1985), they know that they are getting exploited but have no option rather to accept it as considering it their fate because in the end, they have to use their social capital and their needs will automatically take them to those rich people who are exploiting them.

References

https://www.spmrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/J-N-Mandal-Resignation-Letter.pdf?fbclid=IwAR02IGDtuWv17Iz1Ed9ptC3WHwb2MFezTZIGfykAojHcwtmxUKXFIA62vEc

https://users.ssc.wisc.edu/~gwallace/Papers/Lewis%20(1966).pdf

https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Weapons-of-the-Weak_-Everyday-Forms-of-Peasant-Resistance-James-C.-Scott.pdf

[1] He was a Dalit (lower caste Hindu) and became the first Minister for Law and Labor in Pakistan. He believed that Islam teaches equality. Joining the Muslim League would improve his caste’s life, as both faced Hindu majority discrimination. But later, he realized that Muslims are more discriminative than Hindus.