Coronavirus-hit rural Pakistan

To lockdown or not to lockdown that is the question. But this question is largely relevant to urban population centres. The rural areas are not in lockdown, but even then they have lost freedom of movement and essential means to make both ends meet. The coronavirus has pushed them to the abyss of despair. They fear the spectres of starvation - farm prices have declined, foreign remittances reduced, and men who had contractual jobs in cities have come back to their villages. There are more mouths to feed, and much less to feed on. They are not much concerned about the rampaging coronavirus; what haunt them are poor crops due to hostile weather, non-availability of extra hands to help harvesting caused by restriction on inter-district and inter-provincial public transport. And the officialdom tasked to help farmers secure right prices for their farm products remains deliberately casual. According to Secretary General of Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee Farooq Tariq, hundreds of thousands of litres of milk is failing to reach urban markets due to protracted lockdowns, reduced duration of milk sale and its woefully shrinking consumption. This has forced farmers to sell milk at less than half of the price. Since feeds have become expensive many small-scale poultry farmers have culled their birds. The wheat growers are not only hit by erratic weather, but also by the failure of concerned authorities to provide them gunny bags for indoor storage until the government could launch a procurement campaign. Most of the domestic help, vehicle drivers and daily wagers hailing from neighbouring sub-mountainous areas, are missing from twin-cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. While some of them were no more needed the others were found to be undesirable as supposed agents of coronavirus because of their frequent contact with outsiders in view of the nature of their duty. And, while much of the public debate is focused on the number of people to pray in mosques and which industrial unit should reopen there is eerie silence over the predicament of rural poor. The gentlemen they voted to power to represent them in the elected houses are conspicuous by their absence. Their dilemma is compounded by the fact that assemblies are hibernating and the local elected leadership is no longer functional.

There must be a three-dimensional government response. It should give rural orientation to its Ehsaas programme, drastically subsidize cost of farm inputs and strengthen rural leadership by refurnishing its leverage with the people. Of course, given rural-orientation of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), now named Kafaalat relief, the people in villages have benefited. But then the BISP was product of peace times, which is no more the case. On the farm prices front, the farmer is a consistent loser; his produce is not priced by him but by the middleman. And in the absence of a vibrant local government the village people have nobody on their side to speak for them. Their elected MPs are what we call in Punjabi "faslee bataray" (seasonal birds), a failing all the more accentuated when parliament and provincial assembles are in limbo. Indeed, the curse of coronavirus has atrociously devastated the rural economy. The people in villages are suffering in silence just because they do not have a powerful lobby to voice their case - it's not on.