ISLAMABAD 24 Feb (Online): Sixteen-year-old Nadia makes the one-hour journey to and from her employer\u2019s house on foot each day, stopping frequently along the congested streets of Lahore so her mother can rest her weary legs.<\/p>\n
The teenager still had seven years of schooling left to complete, but was forced to drop out last year to help boost family finances by joining her mother as a maid.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s my daughter, but we had no other choice,\u201d says Mohammad Amin, her father, who earns Rs18,000 a month working as a security guard.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s up to God what happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teenager Nadia Amin, who dropped out of school to help boost her family finances by joining her mother as a maid, washes dishes at their home in Lahore.<\/p>\n
The pair walk to work each day to save on transport costs \u2014 a familiar story as millions of families feel the brutal effects of an economy on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s finances have been wrecked by years of financial mismanagement and political instability \u2014 a situation exacerbated by a global energy crisis and devastating floods that left a third of the land under water last year.<\/p>\n
The country is deeply in debt, and needs to introduce tough tax and utility price increases to unlock another tranche of a $6.5 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and avoid defaulting.<\/p>\n
This week the government raised taxes on luxury imports and services \u2014 saying only the rich elite would be affected. However, it also slashed fuel subsidies and increased a general sales tax, both of which will hit low-income families.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aren\u2019t able to make ends meet when we have to pay for gas, electricity and household expenses, so how can we put Nadia in school?\u201d her mother Miraj explains.<\/p>\n
Pakistan consistently ranks near the bottom of global gender parity indexes, and girls are often viewed as a financial burden because of the bride price parents pay when they are married.<\/p>\n
Amin wanted his six daughters to be educated, hoping they would lift the family out of generational poverty.<\/p>\n
The household began to struggle in 2015, when Amin was injured in a road accident, forcing him to give up a relatively good wage as a labourer and take up a more sedentary, low-paying job.<\/p>\n
He then told his wife she could work for the first time, but even with the extra income the family could not manage in the face of skyrocketing inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to force Nadia to drop out after completing fifth grade,\u201d he says, his voice cracking with emotion.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Amin, who works as a security guard, sits with his daughter at their home in Lahore.<\/p>\n
As the eldest, Nadia was often tasked with helping care for her younger siblings, which left her unable to keep up with homework and she was ordered to repeat school years, a not uncommon situation.<\/p>\n
The nominal school fees for the other five daughters are paid for by Miraj\u2019s employer, but with finances precarious there is a risk that Nadia\u2019s 13-year-old sister could be next to leave school.<\/p>\n
Clearing up after making dinner for the family, Nadia collapses from exhaustion on the floor of a humble two-roomed rented home, as her sisters go about their homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot make ends meet. That\u2019s why I give whatever salary I get to my mother,\u201d Nadia says, adding that by shouldering some of the burden for her parents she may help her sisters have a brighter future.<\/p>\n
President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday said half of the country\u2019s children aged between five and 16 were at risk of entering the workforce or of begging.<\/p>\n
More than a fifth of Pakistan\u2019s 220 million people live below the national poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank and IMF, and with inflation running at nearly 30 per cent the problem is deepening.<\/p>\n
The wealth gap is enormous, and tax avoidance by the rich rampant. Revenue collection is just 9pc of gross domestic product, compared to an Asia average of 20pc.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, social media was abuzz with pictures of wealthy Lahore residents queueing for hours to buy Rs700 flavoured coffee from newly opened Canadian outlet Tim Hortons. That is more than the daily wage of most labourers.<\/p>\n
Miraj Bibi, who works as a maid, sits in the kitchen at her home in Lahore.<\/p>\n
Nadia\u2019s family, meanwhile, eat only twice a day, have stopped buying milk, and consider meat an unobtainable luxury.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t buy flour for the house but we make sure we buy the children\u2019s school books \u2026 and other things like uniforms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
By World Bank and IMF metrics, the Amin family still lives on more than the poorest in the country, but life is a constant struggle.<\/p>\n
Even if the country secures an IMF deal and subsequent loans from friendly nations, it could be months before the economy stabilises.<\/p>\n
For Miraj, jeopardising her daughter\u2019s future has left her in despair.
\n\u201cThis eats a mother from the inside,\u201d she says tearfully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD 24 Feb (Online): Sixteen-year-old Nadia makes the one-hour journey to and from her employer\u2019s house on foot each day, stopping frequently along the congested streets of Lahore so her mother can rest her weary legs. The teenager still had seven years of schooling left […]<\/p>\n
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