“Living Beside the Burn” – An Anthropological Reflection on Waste, Survival & Dignity in Losar More, Rawalpindi

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

A Neighborhood That Breathes Struggle

The first thing that I saw when I entered Losar More in Rawalpindi was that the street looked like any other urban neighborhood. Little kids walked home to school, laughing all the way up and down the walls, others kicking battered balls down the dingy lanes. Shopkeepers were shouting their prices out and competing over the prices of vegetables, milk, and small household goods. Women were pushing and shoving their way through the busy streets, carrying baskets on their heads or toddlers. There was a faint scent of spices and fried food over the more acute smell of damp earth, which gave the place something of a strange, almost familiar richness.

But the more I lingered, the more details came out, drawing a more bitter picture of reality. The air was very thick with smoke as people burned their garbage, winding around corners and finding its way into houses through ill-fitting windows. Children put on masks or all covered their faces with cloths as they played, and the shopkeepers still waved at the smoke but went on working. The groups which at first appeared lively had a touch of caution in them–parents cautioned their children as to going too near the burning piles, neighbours cursed to themselves about rubbish not picked up, and the old folks peered through the smoke. Each breath was a bargain, an action, and an asset. What at first was taken to be a normal everyday existence gradually evolved into a survival beat where endurance and precaution became as normal as walking, talking, or selling merchandise.

Why This Story Matters

The struggle of Losar More with the environment is not a common topic of recognition, but it is very human. Careless dumping and burning of garbage not only affect health negatively; they silently transform community life, identity, and even dignity.

This fact does not make the residents silent since they have to live with it. Their silence is because their voices hardly ever get to the ears willing to listen.

As one man reflected after a long pause:

“We are human. Our breath also deserves dignity.”

In this case, it is not merely about living, but it is about taking the right to live with dignity.

How the Research Was Conducted

This study was conducted as an elastic, ethnographic study. I did not use hard-copy questionnaires or formal interviews, but, rather, conversational interviews, on-site observation, and field notes.

Each participant was given some verbal consent before the conversation. The purpose of the research was made known to them, and this was to draw attention to the environmental plight of Losar More and to provide the residents with a medium through which they could share their experiences. This will be done through an ethical approach, which ensures that participants feel at ease, willing, and comfortable sharing their stories.

Through giving the residents the opportunity to be heard in the research, I would be in a position to understand the subtleties of daily survival, how they cope with their circumstances, and the dignity that they seek to achieve despite environmental risks.

1. Home as Shelter, and a Barrier Against Smoke

Houses in Losar More are no longer the symbol of comfort and safety. They have now been obstacles to pollution, smoke screens, and areas where the family has moved their lives around environmental risks. The doors are closed early, the windows are clogged with cloth, and evenings are increasingly spent indoors, not in recreation, but necessity.

1.1 Voices from Losar More
Rashid Ahmed (38, Shopkeeper) recalls:
“Earlier, people used to sit outside the shop and chat. Now everyone lives indoors. Sometimes people even fight when someone throws garbage in front of someone else’s house.”

Kulsoom Bibi (45, Housewife) shares:
“Now, not many people go out in the evening. Earlier, we used to sit together, but now everyone stays indoors because of the smoke and smell. When the smoke rises, everyone closes the doors and calls the children inside.”
She adds practical coping strategies:
“When there is smoke, I close the doors and make the children wear masks. I also use home remedies, such as herbal tea, lemon water, and covering my face with a cloth.”

Kausar Bibi (66, Housewife) emphasizes the daily adjustments:
“We try to stay away from smoke and bad smells. We close the doors and windows and make the children wear masks. We also use herbal teas and lemon water for temporary relief.”

Asim (32, visiting resident) highlights how smoke restricts movement entirely:
“When the garbage is burned here, we are unable to come out of our rooms; the stench is so strong that it becomes difficult to breathe.”

1.2 The Impact on Everyday Life

Such accommodations explain the influence of the environment on culture and social practices. Evening parties, which were the focus of social and communal life, are no longer there. Once places of rest, socialization, and homes have now been turned into safe havens where the best bet is to survive by doing what is right. Outdoor play among children has decreased, and even the adults alter their daily lives to accommodate smoking timetables.

According to Sociologists, such a phenomenon is termed spatial anxiety- in situations where the outside world is becoming unsafe because of environmental dangers, people tend to retreat and reduce their world. As an anthropologist, Setha Low (2003) points out, environmental risks are setting psychological and social limits and transforming not only movement, but also community relationships and standards.

In the view of environmental sociology, the case of Losar More depicts human-environment interaction and environmental determinism in ordinary life. Here, the built and natural setting is directly related to behavior, social networks, and domestic practice,s demonstrating how material circumstances reconfigure cultural and social practices (Low, 2003). In Losar More, smoke is not only a health risk but also a cultural power, as it is transforming family life, social relations, and childhood experiences. Housing is not a mere shelter anymore; it is a defense mechanism to protect against everyday dangers, so the meaning of living spaces changes.

The adaptations in the houses tell more than coping, they demonstrate how the very process of breathing turns into a bargaining with everyday danger where the right to survive determines all the routines and relationships.

2. Breathing Life Amid Smoke, Health and Survival Challenges in Losar More

Air is not air in Losar More it bears the burden of survival. The burning of garbage, dust and stench make every breath dangerous, especially to children, the aged and those who are already ill.

2.1 Voices from Losar More
Amjad (49, Cook and Shop Owner) shares the daily struggle:
“We work right beside this smoke every day. I cook food here and sell it to people, but it feels like we are slowly killing ourselves. My eyes burn, my chest feels heavy, and even my helper coughs the whole night. The air has become poison for us, but what can we do? We have no other place to go.”

He highlights the economic and physical dilemma: the very act of earning a living exposes residents to harm.

Nasreen Bibi (48, Housewife) explains the impact on her family:
“Children fall ill every day. Now think, if there is only one earner in the house and six people are the breadwinners, then where will the servant go? The prices of medicines are skyrocketing, and the hospital staff don’t even look at the poor.”

Her statement emphasizes how health challenges intersect with poverty, creating a cycle of vulnerability.

Local strategies have been developed to survive by the residents. Others wear cloths over their faces, use herbs or steam and attempt to avoid going out during time. As Amjad reflects:

2.2 Coping Mechanisms

Local strategies have been developed to survive by the residents. Others wear cloths over their faces, use herbs or steam and attempt to avoid going out during time. As Amjad reflects:

“This smoke will probably never stop, but our sustenance is written by God. We are living with faith, breathing through the pollution, and hoping that someday our area will also clean like other parts of the city.”

These stories can be traced to structural violence theory (Farmer, 2004) which points at the fact that social structures (poverty, governance failure, and neglect of urban areas) are the determinants that lead to circumstances that affect the health of people negatively. The combination of environmental risks and economic instability demonstrate that disadvantaged groups are exposed to health risks that are disproportionate to them.

However, these health struggles are not in a vacuum, but they are intertwined with other social and economic inequalities, which affect those who experience them the most and how families live their daily lives in Losar More.

3. Health, Inequality, and Environmental Justice

This theme indicates a critical cross-section of health, environment and social inequality. According to the arguments of the anthropologists and environmental sociologists, the marginalized communities tend to be more vulnerable to environmental hazards, a phenomenon that is referred to as the environmental injustice (Bullard, 1990). People of Losar More have disproportional contact with toxic air, whereas the rich areas are safe and healthy.

The health, lives, and the living standards of children are being repeatedly undermined, and families have to make daily trade-offs between their wellbeing and existence. Simply put, even breathing turns out to be a challenge coupled with social and economic frailty.

3.1 Community, Resilience, and Dignity Amid Pollution
Under the poor living conditions of smokes, garbage and stench, the people of Losar More struggle on with determination and dignity. Life goes on, routine alters, and social relationships – but conflicted – survive.

Kulsoom Bibi (45, Housewife) highlights both adaptation and social care:
“The people here are good, and we all live in peace, but cleanliness is a big problem… We have good relations with our neighbors, but when the garbage is burned, everyone gets worried. Living in this smoke personally makes me anxious, but now I have become somewhat accustomed to it.”

Kausar Bibi (66, Housewife) emphasizes dignity and belonging:
“Our land, this house, these cows and buffaloes — everything is here. We cannot leave. Only garbage and smoke should not be our identity. Let there be a little justice. Children and the elderly have the right to clean air. We just want to be heard.”

3.2 Collective Coping and Resilience
People have come up with non-formal ways of coping as a community. They even do common cleaning, mind the children of each other, and share household remedies to sicknesses caused by smoke. Even such minor gestures as closing doors, wearing masks, making herbal teas mean both survival and dignity.

The responses within the community are resilient to the theory of community resilience (Anthony Oliver-Smith, 1996), in that resilience is not merely survival, but the ability to continue with dignity, identity and social solidarity even when the system does not acknowledge them. The Losar More case demonstrates the role of social connections and mutuality in enabling communities to counter stressors associated with the environment.

Although the community is very resilient, these inequalities are exacerbated by the fact that governance is quite loose, which brings about the realization that environmental hazards are to do with power and neglect as much as they are to do with smoke and pollution.

4. Governance, Neglect, and the Quest for Change in Losar More

The Losar More narrative is not all smoke and garbage, but about neglect, institutional failures and how the community is attempting to force change. Citizens once again are confronted with apathy and lack of care on the part of authorities, which further increases the problem and makes everyday life more like theirs.

4.1 Voices from Losar More
Nasreen Bibi (48, Housewife) reflects on systemic neglect:
“Sometimes I feel like raising my voice for my rights, but no one listens. People like us are living in a pile of filth… The prices of medicines are skyrocketing, and the hospital staff don’t even look at the poor.”

Kausar Bibi (66, Housewife) emphasizes the community’s frustrations and limited recourse:
“Before, some people complained, but no one listened. Officers would come, look and go. Then people lost heart, but now life has become so difficult that they are raising their voices again… Only garbage and smoke should not be our identity. Let there be a little justice.”

Shabana (42, Resident) underscores the impact on children’s futures:
“My younger daughter is often sick. The doctor also says that she should change her residence, or her condition may worsen. For the sake of the children, we will have to go.”

4.2 Community Action and Limited Interventions
There are those residents who resort to collective efforts: stepping down of trucks, demonstrating or going to the media. Other programs such as Suthara Punjab have gained some little through sanitation drives, which are temporary and patchy.

This indicates the gaps in environmental governance and the idea of environmental justice (Schlosberg, 2007), which claim that there are no equal opportunities to live in clean environments across the marginalized areas. The fight of the residents demonstrates that justice is not only physical but also recognized, being involved, and being held responsible in decision-making.

Even though it is part of the broader neglect in the system, the people of Losar More are not giving up and trying to live, defend, and demand to be able to breathe the clean air, and this struggle is as human as it is political.

“Sometimes the healing of a place begins with simply seeing it.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer

References

• Bullard, R. D. (1990). Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Farmer, P. (2004). Pathologies of power: Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Low, S. M. (2003). Behind the gates: Life, security, and the pursuit of happiness in fortress America. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Oliver-Smith, A. (1996). Anthropological research on hazards and disasters. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 303–328. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.25.1.30
• Schlosberg, D. (2007). Defining environmental justice: Theories, movements, and nature. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press