On Monday, at least 19 women were killed in a stampede in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Karachi. According to the NY Times, “The stampede occurred as a local trader was distributing food [flour, lentils and other goods] in Khori Garden, a sprawling neighborhood in the southern part of the city. Hundreds of women and children had gathered in the narrow lanes, and witnesses said the women tumbled over one another trying to enter a building in an attempt to collect the food first.” 25 people were reportedly injured in the incident.
BBC News‘ Arman Sabir noted that the key cause of the tragedy was “the unexpected arrival of large numbers of people.” The crowding and congestion at the distribution site later exacerbated the situation, making it difficult for ambulances and rescue workers to get through. Waseem Ahmed, Karachi’s police chief, told reporters, “The incident happened because the distribution was taking place in a very confined area without any precautions,” adding that the man distributing the free flour, identified as Chaudhry Iftikhar, was detained “because he had not given police prior notice.”
According to Bloomberg, President Asif Ali Zardari has called for an inquiry into the stampede, ordering the Sindh government “to appoint a High Court judge to lead the probe and report within a week on who is responsible for the tragedy.” Zardari “took serious note of the poor arrangements to manage huge crowds,” adding that local authorities should have ensured the distribution was “smooth and safe.” Dawn reported that Sindh’s Chief Minister has promised a compensation of one lakh rupees (100,000 rs.) for the families of the victims.
Media outlets provided several eyewitness accounts of the stampede Monday, humanizing the tragedy further. Fatima Hashim, a 55 year old woman whose daughter was seriously injured Monday, told Al Jazeera, “The place where wheat flour was being distributed was very narrow, which suffocated hundreds of women and children…I went along with two of my daughters to get two bags of flour, but now my younger daughter is struggling for life in the hospital.”
Amina, a maid at a government school in Lyari told Dawn News,
I would have never come here to get flour if the inflation rate was not as high. The price hike this year has made it difficult for us to feed our large families and the government does not seem to care. Every day I stand in long queues to purchase atta (flour) at Rs. 10 per kg, but return home empty-handed. Today, when I heard that free flour was being distributed by someone, I immediately rushed to try my luck here as well…As soon as I reached out to get a bag of flour, two women jumped on my back and I fell down. The crowd stepped on me and I couldn’t breathe for a while and then fell unconscious. My neighbor brought me to the hospital.
In the wake of this heart-breaking incident, it seems we are all trying to find a scapegoat. Authorities blamed the man distributing the food for not taking the necessary precautions in a confined area. Zardari, in his statement Monday, pointed the finger at the local authorities, asserting they should have ensured that food distribution was safe and secure. According to The News, one eyewitness even shifted responsibility to the crowd, blaming the “intolerant, ill-mannered and impatient women.”
At the end of the day, the problem is much larger than the man who didn’t clear the area with the authorities, or the authorities who didn’t ensure the crowd’s safety, or the women who impatiently charged ahead for free rations of food. Tuesday’s Dawn editorial echoed my sentiments exactly when it stated, “The women and children who jostled and pushed their way towards handouts were not driven by greed; they were driven by hunger and the fear of starvation.”
According to the World Food Program, 24 percent of Pakistan’s population is undernourished and 38 percent of children are underweight. The current state of hunger, noted the agency, is “alarming.” Moreover, factors like Ramadan and the sugar and wheat shortages have exacerbated rising food prices. Given that two-thirds of Pakistan’s 160 million people subsist on less than $2 a day, a surge in food prices endangers their very survival. As Dawn noted, “The accouterments of [Pakistan’s] state power and prestige ring hollow when people are dying in their search for food.”
[…] goods] in Khori Garden, a sprawling neighborhood in the southern […] Read more at: CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan ambulances, chief minister, congestion, court judge, eyewitness accounts, fatima, free flour, […]
i like how the chief minister says we will compensate the victims families with 0.1 Million Rs. HAHAHAHHAHA..why not just got ahead and say 1 lakh.. or 100,000. I mean does .1 Million sound more? hilarious
In his defense, he must have said 1 lakh in Pakistan but Dawn wrote it as 0.1 million! I was just quoting, but you’re right 🙂 I just changed it in the post.
[…] at CHUP: Changing Up Pakistan informs that yesterday at least 19 women were killed in a stampede while collecting food in one of the poorest […]
this is heart wrenching.
I like the colours of the the Pakistan’s flag! I pray the difference in Pakistan will soon end
[…] 19 Women Killed in a Stampede for Food […]
I just read about this and I feel awful. It is so sad to see such desperation in our country that people have to die fighting for a little food.
[…] at CHUP: Changing Up Pakistan informs that yesterday at least 19 women were killed in a stampede while collecting food in one of the poorest […]
This is a perfect example of what happens when government spends more money than it brings in, and resorts to an expansion of the money supply coupled with socialism.
The true burdeon of government is not what it taxes, but what it spends. What we need in Pakistan is substancially less government, we need to reduce the burdeon on the economy so people can have an increased standard of living.
If anyone believes, even in theory, that the government has the power to help feed people, they are highly mistaken.
What we need in Pakistan is deflation, and the only way we can achieve that is through substancially reduced size of government. Remember, the government has no wealth, only the ability to redistribute the wealth away from one agent who is combining land labor and capital in efficient ways to generate a profit, and redirect it to an agent for political reasons.
It’s important to remember that living standards rise in any economy as a result of capital accumulation, which allows for labor to be more productive, which in turn results in greater output per worker. This increased output per worker results in greater consumption and leisure. However, capital investment can only be increased if adequate savings are available to finance it. Savings can only come into existance as a result of self sacrifice, under-consumption, and spending less than what you produce. The governement represents a drain on national savings, the capital must be diverted to more effecient areas of the economy in order for growth to take place.
When governments simply print money into existence, they don’t create purchasing power. If that were true, nobody would need a job, we could all just have small printing presses. All that happens is there is a reallocation of purchasing power from those who have the old money to those who receive the new money. The total money supply increases, and that is the definition of inflation. A rise is prices will occuer soon enough, but it is a lagging indicator. Putting artificial price controls only exacerbates the problem, creating shortages.
My entire point:
New purchasing power can ONLY come from new production.
k:
the sad part
when the lights have dimmed
and the dead are entombed
and we retire
to greet another day
all this sorrow would be past
we would have our teas
and cereals or parathas
and find other issues
to discuss
only the orphans
would never forget
Kal bhi awaam ka khoon sasta tha, aaj bhi awaam ka khoon sasta hai
Roti, kapra, makan kal aik khwab tha aaj aik mazaak ban gaya hai
Kal awaam baibus thee aaj awaam lachaar hai
Kal bhi siyasatdan jhoota tha aaj bhi siyasatdan jhoota hai
-Aly
http://discomaulvi.wordpress.com/
shame
I saw a picture of this little boy looking at his mother’s covered up body on a stretcher. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.
Sorry for the double post, but this one is addressed to HGW: while I generally agree that government spending urgently needs to be reduced, I do think that it would be inhuman to not have some kind of welfare for families who are starving due to lack of basic necessities like flour. Price controls are bad because they punish the agricultural sector, but something like food stamps seems like an absolute necessity at times like this.
Forget the government, here is what Junaid Jamshed has to say about the victims.
I hang my head in shame because people like JJ are my countrymen and they are revered here.
http://tazeen-tazeen.blogspot.com/2009/09/gift-of-gall-or-permanent-laps-of.html
See, food stamps might sound like a good idea but in reality it’s a fallacy and can never work.
If the country does not have adequate savings and production to finance a welfare program, what you’re doing is causing more people to need welfare in the future, as the total productive capacity will diminish over time. Those future hungry people aren’t easy to see or recognize, as they have been robbed in an indirect way.
You’re robbing future generations of economic opportunities that would have been present, had that capital been freed up for investments today, rather than being squandered on consumption for the sake of the present. If a million people need it today, ten million may need it in 10 years.
Savings and credit are a finite thing. If you want longterm sustainable growth, that money MUST be invested in something aside from consumption and government spending. It must be invested in something that can generate a profit.
I appreciate your concern, and believe me nobody wants to see people go hungry. But welfare does not solve the problem, it creates more problems.
The ONLY way to feed people is to produce more consumer goods. The only way to produce more goods is through more savings, which leads to cheaper credit, which leads to more profit and more capital accumulation.
By squandering our scarce savings today on non-interest bearing political investments is a huge mistake. Where will the capital and savings supposed to come from to finance our next generation???
[…] of women who have no choice but to line up among crowds of men if they are to feed their children. Nineteen women are trampled to death while queuing for cheap flour in Karachi and all the government can do is ‘take notice’ of the […]
[…] the poor. Working in the development realm has helped put such issues into further focus. My thoughts and prayers go out to the women recently killed in the stampede for food in Karachi, as well as the numbers of others in Pakistan and throughout the world who don’t have the […]
My condolence is with the families of the Victimized people and for the person who was distributing the the food..that was his generous step to help the poverty but it get ruined..