The shape of society

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.
We have a strange society. It is one in which acute differences in class place segments of people in different categories, separated from each other by walls that refuse to come down. There is little intermingling, little interaction and a great deal of misunderstanding about those who live different lives in one way or the other.
When we discuss class, the issue of poverty invariably arises. It has been discussed in enormous detail with respect to Pakistan, and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar this year conceded that well over one-third of the population live below the poverty line. Over the years, many attempts have been made to alter poverty figures by changing the standards through which they are measured and thereby attempting to propel people above the income level that marks absolute poverty.
As a result of this poverty, we have extraordinarily high levels of stunting, wasting and malnutrition in our country, most notably among children and women. Stunted children, whose height is less than what would be expected for their age, or wasted ones whose weight is less than what would be expected, are also, according to the latest studies, afflicted by a lack of ability to learn as quickly as their peers and are thus doomed by the condition of their lives to live at the bottom rungs of a grossly unfair society. The women who give birth to these children are themselves often severely malnourished, most notably in the Sindh province but also elsewhere across the country.
However, here we have a strange discrepancy. According to a report published by the prestigious UK medical journal The Lancet last year, Pakistan stands at 9th place in the world on the list of countries in terms of the prevalence of obesity. Many countries richer than it, including Libya, Indonesia and other nations rank behind it in a list topped, as would be expected, by the US. Linked to this is the fact that the country also has the fourth highest number of diabetics anywhere in the world and a high rate of cardiac disease, hypertension and other ailments frequently linked to lifestyle.
The problem ties in to the class war. It seems that the culture of consumerism has led even the less well off to eat more and more unhealthy food, giving up traditional items that could well act to save their lives and avoid huge medical expenditures for overburdened households. The situation is a rather grave one. Partly as a result of social pressure, people appear genuinely convinced that fast food items, soda drinks and packaged snacks full of trans-fats and sugar are the best choice for themselves and for their children. The results are terrifying, with more and more people suffering sickness as a consequence of the lifestyle they choose.
This ties in with the fact that physical activity is discouraged. The notion that seems to cut across all classes is that academic success alone is important. The awareness that physical activity can complement good study and is in so many ways as important as our books is simply not accepted. Sometimes for months, sometimes for weeks before exams, children are barred from pursuing sport and even at other times not always encouraged to take it up.
Girls in particular suffer, both because the discouragement is greater from within families, as well as due to the social barriers that prevent them from going out onto the limited playing fields and open spaces that still exist in our society. The age of technology, as is the case around the world, is of course also dissuading children and young people from taking up sport – with many instead choosing to pore for hours over computers or the mobile phones which virtually every Pakistani seems to possess; Pakistan has one of the highest mobile phone ownership rates in the world.
There is an irony here. The poor, or relatively less well-off, attempt to emulate those more privileged than themselves by turning to fast food and other consumer items as a kind of status symbol. In turn, the most wealthy attempt to find organic food, untainted by the chemicals and pesticides, often paying extraordinary amounts to obtain a small sack of wheat flour or buy organically grown vegetables and milk which is not as polluted as most sold in the market.
The items that can offer both health benefits and which are relatively free from manipulation from outside agents, such as corn on the cob, the coal-baked sweet potato sold on the streets and other similar items are often looked down upon as food which has insufficient status. As a result, in many middle-class households, far more expensive store bought cookies etc are served in their place. The economic strains this places of course adds to poor eating habits within such households.
We need to look both literally and metaphorically at the kind of society we are creating. On the one hand, we have obesity; on the other, acute malnutrition. There is a desperate need for balance – but also a need to change mindsets. At present, there is a huge amount of focus on certain aspects of life but not on others.
The reality is that, as the medical adage goes, prevention is always better than cure. We should think about all the sicknesses we could prevent and the money that could be saved on healthcare if we paid a little more attention both to physical activity and what we eat. The problem goes quite beyond that of fitness. It is tied in to the class structure and the desire to emulate the lifestyles of those who are better off. The perceptions, and sometimes misperceptions, about this lead to the consumption of all kinds of food that may be fashionable, but may also eventually be quite fatal.
This applies to other areas of life as well. The desperate desire to achieve upward mobility or an appearance of it means a focus on the cosmetic. Rather than upgrading family living and investing in the future, thoughts focus on the immediate. Even those barely able to manage themselves believe they must hire ‘servants’ to put themselves at the same level as those on the next tier of our cruel class hierarchy. As a result, we see child maids brought in as a kind of status symbol – perpetuating the cycle of poverty and deprivation that we already confront.
To break out of this cycle, we need to think differently. This is difficult in a time when there are fewer and fewer individuals and parties willing to break out from the existing status quo. But we need to end this order. A way has to be found to allow people greater movement through society in real terms, by providing good education, good recreation and a better quality of life at reasonable prices so that people do not have to put on a pretence of moving up through other means.
The attention to this has not come at all from our leadership. But it is really an issue that needs to be attended to. This can happen only if we are able to encourage greater contact between different classes and by doing so create a better understanding of their problems, their outlook and their needs. Only then will we have a homogenous and more equal society.
Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com