LAHORE: Pakistan is known for its resilience, perhaps because of its women who survive despite living in more oppressed conditions than men. Most vulnerable among them are widows and divorcees who look after their children when left by their husbands.
Women account for a sizeable self-employed in our society. They possess skills like stitching dresses or ironing clothes. Most operate from their homes and earn less than the market rates for their labour.
Some of these women work to supplement the income of their husbands but there some who are either left by their husbands or widowed. They must earn bread for themselves and their children. The journey is not easy, but they face hardships without losing heart and carry the life with dignity.
Asma now in her forties is one such example. Her husband contracted second marriage and threw her out of the house with two children aged 4 and 8. The neighbours in the poor slum she lived with her husband provided her a small room as shelter. Asma had a sewing machine with which she started stitching women suits for ladies living in the affluent locality nearby.
With time, her stitching skills improved and the dresses she stitched were better than the established tailors, but the her charges remained lower. She had to look after her children, cook food and wash their clothes . She stitched dresses in the remaining time. She could make two dresses in a day.
The amount was just enough to take care of her children. She never asked for alms or charity. She sent her children in a government school nearby. Ten years latter her daughter is 18 years and has passed her high school. She started assisting her mother from the age of thirteen. Now she helps full time her mother in making dresses besides preparing to appear in the BA exams as a private candidate.
With an increase in income, they have left the small room and have rented a bigger one. The son is fourteen and is studying in class 9. She has sent her son to Punjab Vocational Training Council.
“It was not any easy journey,” said Asma. “I raised my children in the best possible way, and they make me proud with their success in studies and obedience,” Asma said. She is not alone; there are many hardworking women like her in our city who beat all odds to move ahead.