Picturing the Slums of Pakistan

Imagine being a part of the society that is neglected of their basic necessities for life every single day, hour, minute, and even for seconds. Yes, this is the tragic life of people who are unfortunate enough to not have access to basic education, food, sanitation, and healthy living. With all the light of life snatched away from these poor souls, their journey from the cradle to the grave is terrifying and makes one tremble with fear. With 47.7% of the total population of Pakistan directly affected by this situation, the figure has kept worsening since 2014.

Taking shelter in the ‘Katchi Abadis’ as people of Pakistan call it, these beings are deprived of almost everything that you can imagine to live a normal life. From houses made of tents and situated right on top of open sewage lines to water and food that is highly contaminated which makes them fall prey to diseases like cholera, HIV, tuberculosis and many more.

The worst part is that these diseases are left untreated as they do not have enough funds or financial support to consult doctors and receive medication. One of the biggest diseases that lives among them is PEM (protein-energy malnutrition), with very less source of food items available for these families they are unable to feed their kids with sufficient amount of protein causing stomach bloating, flaked skin, weakened arms and legs making them appear puffy and bloated.

A picture of a young patient going through Protein Energy Malnutrition, being treated in one of the camps

The story doesn’t stop here, with diseases on the rise, their life is not just full of threat health-wise but they are on the brink of facing theft, kidnapping, abandonment, prostitution, rape, and drugs. With nobody to bat an eye at such incidents, the slums of Pakistan are the silenced beings who go through such trauma every single day in their life with almost nobody to report their story or provide safety in terms of such incidents. Kids falling prey to drugs, women raped or used in prostitution, young males used for gang wars and drug supply, the stabled ones rise above everything to manipulate the lives of the weak ones.

With all these tragedies affiliated with the life of people in the slums of Pakistan, one must wonder how it is to live a day in the life of slums. No matter how beautiful the world looks like, there isn’t any hope that one day they will wake up to all the beauties that life has instilled in it. While the kids and the grown-ups live in constant fear of another trouble adding to their lives, Pakistan is still trying to assess and solve such issues with their schemes of providing residence and education to aid in the development of life and future of the impacted ones.

By Muhammad Umer Khalil

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