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labour
day
Loaders are paid Rs3 for every 85kg atta bag they pick up A truck arrives every morning at a godown at Chowk Yateem Khana with 100 atta bags of 85kg each and three young men. As the truck shutter goes down with a thud, two men step down. They look very young. Mani is only 17. The other boy Masood is also a teenager. They are ready to lift any amount of weight. Town
Talk Hard
times MOOD
STREET art Animal
kingdom One in a crowd
labour day Brick by brick Kiln workers in our country still live the life of ancient-era slaves By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed Ata Muhammad, 27, is a brick kiln worker who lives in one of the around 90 mud houses that adjoin a kiln on Bhasin road near Jallo Mor. Other inmates of the house are his wife and two sons whose ages are around three and one. Ata and his wife work from 3am in the morning to 6pm in the evening and their joint daily income comes to Rs450. It is not their daily wage; they are paid this amount per 1000 uncooked bricks they make. The kiln owner adjusts Rs 150 against a loan secured by his parents and gives Rs 300 to him which is too meager an amount to feed a family of four. Ata has no choice, and neither does he remember when and why his parents sought loan from a kiln owner. He cannot even ask his current employer who moved Ata’s family to his place some years ago after paying the loan amount to the kiln owner who owed them money. Ata recalls he was hardly six years old when he started helping his parents produce bricks. The process starts with digging mud from nearby fields in the evening, bringing it to the kiln area and soaking it in water before going home. Next day, even before dawn, he starts giving the soaked mud the shape of bricks with the help of a mould. He also adds some sand to stop the mud from falling out. The process of carrying the bricks to the kiln for baking and their grading and compilation are the processes that follow. Ata’s wife helps him do different tasks throughout the day which takes a heavy toll on her health as she is exposed to the scorching heat of sun all the time. Her younger son stays with her as there is no one at home to take care of him. The ordeal worsens when they have to reach lands farther away to get “red mud” to produce high quality bricks. The mud of lands next to the BRB canal is saline and unfit for use at it compromises on the strength and quality of the bricks thus produced. Ata does not want his
sons to live his life but admits the chances are rare that he will be able
to educate them. He has no idea of the statements made by the Punjab
government to set up schools at kilns, register workers under Factories
Act, issue social security cards to them and ensure they are paid the
minimum amount of Rs 517 per 1000 bricks they produce. “We have never found any government on our side. Whenever a need arises, we seek advance from the kiln owner which he uses as a tool to tie us to his place.” Ata cannot go to the nearby town to find work during monsoon season as the brick owner does not allow him to do that. Living during these off-days is also managed by securing advance which the kiln owner loves to extend. The sort of a slum where he lives has only two electricity meters and the owner distributes electricity to the house and distributes the bill among them. There is only one hand pump next to a stagnant pool of water from where they draw water for their needs. When it develops a fault, there is no water. The concept of lavatory is unknown to the residents and they have to go to the fields to relieve themselves. Ata shares that sometimes this option is also not available as custodians of these lands don’t allow them to enter. “A raakha (watchman) would even guard the fields at night and use his torch to spot the kiln workers from crossing the boundary.” Ata, who was reprimanded recently for attending the meetings of Pakistan Bhatta Mazdoor Union, hopes one day the kiln workers will agree to give them a fixed wage. He knows minimum wage of an unskilled labourer is Rs 7,000 per month and a skilled labourer earns Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month. Ata claims kiln workers are skilled labour but many just like him hardly earn Rs 5,000 per month. Bricks’ rate has doubled but a kiln worker’s income is the same. Ata is abrupt to answer why he obtains loans when a kiln worker is bound by law not to extend loan whose amount is more than one week’s income of a household. “What else can we do when we are ill, we have to marry a girl, take a child to the clinic or sit idle due to weather.” Running away is not a feasible option for Ata who fears the kiln owner will come after him. This person may use a court bailiff to retrieve him and his family from the kiln where they move. There have been cases where kiln owners haunted absconding kiln workers and then deducted heavy amounts from their earnings. It was the money they had spent on searching out for them, Ata concludes.
Loaders are paid Rs3 for every 85kg atta bag they pick up A truck arrives
every morning at a godown at Chowk Yateem Khana with 100 atta bags of 85kg
each and three young men. As the truck shutter goes down with a thud, two
men step down. They look very young. Mani is only 17. The other boy Masood
is also a teenager. They are ready to lift any amount of weight. The loaders wrap a sheet of cloth around their head and brace to carry the atta bags. The two Hercules transport all the 100 bags weighing 85kg each to the four storey storehouse which is filled and emptied all day. The man on the truck helps put the bags on the young men’s sturdy shoulders that cover any distance with quick steps and don’t seem to get out of breath. What they are paid for this work will surprise anyone – only Rs3 per bag. They are not the only ones who are paid so little. All the labourers who load and off-load atta trucks are paid the same by all mill owners. The fellow in whose godown these bags were being placed, sides with the mill owners. He believes the loaders’ should get just this much money for the work or they will be spoiled. The truck driver said eight trucks are loaded and unloaded by 15 men. Mani is the seventh of nine siblings and started this work at age of 15. These labourers load and unload three trucks which makes 600 bags. Mani is getting Rs.3 per bag since one and a half year. “It should be at least Rs.5,” people who had gathered while the boys were being questioned, said. An old man who had been a loader once, said, “This weight lifting depreciates life.” Mani and Masood didn’t say what they wanted next. They were being called by the shop owner to do the work quickly, so the crowd dispersed. — Saadia Salahuddin
and Paintings by Jamshed Qaisar at Vogue Art Gallery, 8A, CII, M.M. Alam Road opening on Wed, May 2 at 5:30 pm. * Lahore Beat Poets Vol. 1 at Beaconhouse National University (BNU) on Friday, May 4 at 7:00 pm. * Musical Evening on Tuesday, May 1, at the Lahore Arts Council, Alhamra Hall III, The Mall. Singers: Ustad Ghulam Hasan Shaggan and Qadir Ali Shaggan. Haji Sultan Muhammad Chanay on Rubab (solo), Sohna Rangi on clarinet (solo), Shabbir Hussain Jhari on tabla, Muhammad Aslam on harmonium and Zohaib Hasan on sarangi. Organisers: The All Pakistan Music Conference. Entry on card. * Learning to See: A guided tour of how to look at & enjoy art with Salima Hashmi from 5:00 to 6:00 pm. Call Faiz Ghar for details.
Hard
times Twenty five men sit in a row at the Yateem Khana Chowk, many with paint brushes and a colour selection chart before them or by their side, some without anything in hand and an old man with a hammer. They are painters, labour ready to carry weight and a sole brick crusher – all waiting for work. Its already past 11 o’clock and as the day wears on, chances of getting any diminish. “There is work 10 to 15 days in a month only,” says Muhammad Ramzan, who leaped out from the crowd to talk to press. Others affirm. “One day’s wage is Rs500 or Rs600 depending upon the employer and this is very little considering the price-hike in basic food items. If we get work everyday, we can fare well. We won’t complain,” says Ramzan. But he is corrected by an angry peer who says, “A labourer should get minimum Rs1000 for a day’s work. We live in sub-human conditions.” Ramzan takes over the
conversation. He is welling with emotions. “Asthma and TB are common
ailments among us before we reach mid life. We eat more of limestone and
dust than food. The only fan that would keep my eight member family cool
is out of order since three days. I don’t have Rs150 for its repair as I
have no work like others here. When I go home without anything in hand, my
six children look at me and ask, ‘you got nothing today’?” Many a
days, they sleep without food in this city of 10 million. “I haven’t
eaten anything today, not a morsel. We, the labourers, appeal to the
rulers to do something to create employment and bring the prices down.” “What if you get contract of a house, don’t you make more money then?” I ask. “No. The brushes you see in our hands come for Rs350 each. If there are three rooms to be painted in three different colours, you need three brushes which cannot be reused for painting. They remain good for cleaning only. If we reach an agreement to charge Rs3000 for the work, Rs1000 is spent straightaway on brushes.” “We ask for advance to buy this stuff. When the work is finished, we are shown defects – smallest of hole that remains to be filled or the client would say you didn’t rub the wall well. If you are unfortunate, the employer refuses to pay saying he is not satisfied with your work.” “The entertainers with monkey and goat are better off than us. At least they get some money in a day. The government has not lived up to the ideals of its leader. Instead of revolution, the masses are going through the darkest of times where prices of edibles have gone up 500 times. Electricity bill ranges from Rs600 to Rs2500. Do the rulers know how the masses are surviving in such conditions?” Ramzan goes on. Another said, “I haven’t been home. Its three months now.” Another from Faisalabad said, “It’s 15 days since I last went home.” Yet another one looked lost, deep in thought. When I asked where did he live? A labourer in the crowd said, “On footpath. He also wants to go home but how?” “We are all citizens of this country,” said Ramzan, taking out his identity card. “We are labourers, painters, masons – the most hardworking people but are treated as dregs of this society who have been left to rot and die.”
MOOD
STREET It appears from a distance that newspaper journalists are listless and idle ideologues, lost in the saga of a by-gone era. This will seem very true if you visit the office in day-time. But in the night, the picture is very different and happening. Most journalists are
creatures of the night, because major newspapers with national circulation
go for printing at mid-night and therefore the page deadlines are a few
hours before that. A few days back the news came that a Dawn editor, Murtaza Razvi, had been killed. This left me very pensive. Bollywood keeps paying tribute to itself, from movies like Kaghaz key Phool, Guddi to Om Shanti Om and Khoya Khoya Chand, to name just a few. But other professions don’t have the luxury. Though of late there are some movies depicting journalists in a very Barkha Dutt fashion but newspaper journalists are not as swift and nippy. The print is more reflective, contemplative, slower to respond, over-worked and under-paid. So this one time, I want to write about being a journalist. A couple of years back I attended a seminar for journalists in hotel Sunfort in Liberty, Lahore. The experience was shocking. The majority felt aggrieved and exploited. Some were delivering up to ten news reports daily, hadn’t been paid for months or were unemployed for years now. The ascent of a journalist to an analyst, writer and scholar is apparently very smooth but the trick lies in reading, writing and knowing more. Journalism made so many writers who they are, including Hemingway, Marquez, Dickens, Muhammed Hanif and Khushwant Singh. Journalists who rise up the ranks are very hardworking and brilliant, or else they align themselves with some particular group and ideology. There is a charm and romance in this profession that is readily threatened by TV, cyber-space and sinking subscription rates. Every page that reaches your door in the morning has been toiled over by half a dozen people. The news, letters, features, op-eds and editorials are just the tip of the iceberg. The lay-out, pictures, captions and ads, have to fall in place, only to be lazily discarded by a bored reader the next morning. This is not to say that there are no cheats, selfish and ill-researched bigots. But this is a risky profession, with long hours and enormous work-load. Usually the only respite is the sense of satisfaction that follows a completed page. The work soothes a deep sense of idealism that every journalist entails. Most journalists understand that there won’t be a shutter-down strike when they die. They realise that no rallies or breaking news will occur. But this is not why they do what they do. They know their tea-boy will wonder why they drink tea no more, the colleagues will wish they could work some more and a teenage college student will wonder on his way to the Chemistry class ‑—why that particular idiot writes no more.
The cancer ward at the Mayo Hospital is buzzing with activity but for a change it’s not about despair and gloom that we associate with the disease. Rather; it’s the affect of an art intervention project with the name of ‘Art for Humanity’ initiated by NCA in partnership with BF Biosciences with the support of ICI Duluxe-Philips and Coke. Art which is known to have healing powers is especially meant for the patients suffering from critical diseases and it has been observed that it improves response to therapy and lead to better clinical outcomes. “To help create a supportive environment at Public sector hospitals; this charitable cause which is managed by 24 students and consists of five faculty members including the sponsor is for a reason and has a proper background to it,” says the curator of Zahoor-ul-Ikhlaq Gallery of NCA, Qudsia Rahim. Backdrop Under the ‘Art for Humanity’ initiative; BF Biosciences that produces Hepatitis ‘C’ and Chemotherapy medicines is supporting need-based merit scholarships to at least four students each year at NCA while the college has setup an annual elective course, under which its 3rd year students will work with the company to uplift the environment in public sector institutions. “CEO Osman Khalid Waheed of BF Biosciences felt the need for this so we at NCA decided to introduce this selectively under the title of ‘Art for Humanity’,” explained Qudsia. This company is an Argentine-Pak partnership which is a Public Outreach Project that is to take up a Public Sector Initiative. “Osman has committed to run this partnership,” a very excited Qudsia said. “The main idea is to take up a Public Hospital and observe how through design and art intervention we can improve the situation of cancer wards which are mostly in state of neglect. At the same time we are not going to criticise the running of the hospital and the aim is not to identify lack of basic amenities but to actually aid the hospital, care-givers, patients and stake holders through the positive role of ‘art’ in society.” The new world of Art “The function of art has evolved over a period of time,” says Qudsia. The concept of 3-D and installations has brought fresh appeal in the modern age. When we went to “Mayo Hospital we thought the conditions there would be okay but were shocked to find that there was not a single life-saving machine or a heart monitor in the Oncology ward,” she remarked. “The wards had drip-stands and beds only and the hospital administration couldn’t do much due to lack of funds. We did not intend to paint pretty pictures on the walls. The sole purpose is to help them improve the look of the place and provide solutions to simple problems of the care-givers and visitors under the given situation of the cancer ward. The project was unique that connected students, artists and faculty to the realities of our community and helped artists in addressing a genuine social need,” Qudsia pointed out. The Idea “The idea is open to all the students of the college in all the departments as each one can deliver something unique and according to his or her potential. For instance the textile or ceramic departments will go differently in treating each space,” explained Qudsia. “There is a room in the Oncology department that leads to the balcony which was dull and could become a potential place to jump off from by the desperate and terminally ill patients and is now being given a new purpose and turned into a dining place with lots of chairs and tables.” Objectives The students have studied the demographics of the hospital and came to the conclusion that most of the patients belong to interior Punjab. “These people are going through tremendous hardships. There are farmers, labourers and skilled craftsmen among them. It is up to us to make their stay in the hospital as pleasant as possible,” she said. The project is solely for them and a survey of the patients, care-givers and doctors was carried out to identify certain areas where artists can contribute. Many brain-storming sessions were held and it was decided to paints murals among other things. Art for Humanity “The waiting area was given a new face as the visitors had to wait for hours before their turn came. Orientation maps and local signage are also being introduced for the convenience of the illiterate visitors who can study the coloured lines leading to the chemo and radiation rooms and certain coloured lines which are meant for washrooms identification. “After getting feedback certain symbols and mapping was carried out for recognition of the systems. So these people who are already at their wits end feel a little better after being exposed to environment friendly wall-paints and scenery such as ‘truck-art’ which they can relate to and that brings smiles on their faces,” says Qudsia on a parting note. The good news is that this will become a permanent activity that NCA will carry out every year. “The project will not only help improve the environment for cancer patients and their families, it will also set a precedent for deeper interaction between art and the community at large,” rightly says Osman Waheed, the CEO of BF Biosciences.
Animal
kingdom Imagine watching a chimpanzee, a very intelligent animal whose behaviour is very similar to that of humans (about 98% of human and chimpanzee DNA is identical)all alone in a cage, a source of entertainment for all who watch him from outside. He seems so reflective and at the same time tries to stay away from spectators – he needs a companion. Animals live much longer in captivity. Chimpanzees live for about 60 years while their life span in the wild is only about 35-40 years. And oh! He is alone. While most of the animals are in pair, the chimpanzee, lama and elephant at the Lahore Zoo are alone. But it was heartening to see most of the animals in pairs even the rhinos and hippos have mates. There are 125 species in the
Lahore zoological gardens and more than 1100 animals. There is full
representation from Africa, New zealand and all geographic regions of the
world. Lahore Zoo has always been a source of entertainment not only for children but for people of all age groups. This place gives people an opportunity to educate themselves and their children. This self-sufficient organisation generates the fund necessary to run its affairs itself. The Lahore Zoo was established in 1872, so 150 years have passed. The entry ticket here is nominal Rs5 for children and Rs15 for adults. No doubt people of all age groups including handicapped, enjoy visiting this place. Many schools bring children to zoo for educational trips while that for special children is free of cost. There is a museum in the zoo where they have stuffed animals on display. While our parents and older cousins remember riding on real elephant the same is not available to children today as a restriction was imposed on riding in 1999. On my recent visit to the zoo I met a mother with three children who was there from another city and was greatly disappointed on finding the elephant ride missing. Let’s hope the zoo authorities would consider bringing in young and healthy elephant so that the children can ride once again, though mechanical rides are there like in other amusement parks and are quite a source of income for the Lahore Zoo. There is an enclave where
only deer are kept. People try their luck at feeding them, offering them
popcorns mostly. Watching them run nimbly and swiftly on their slender legs is
a treat in itself. I wish there were more trees and shades here for these
beautiful creatures. Animals are also adopted by different organisations or people who pay for their fee for a year. Recently, filmstar Meera adopted a deer by paying Rs9000. To ensure cleanliness in the environment in the wake of increasing fear of dengue, much plantation has been removed and the fountains have received fish. Among other things the zoo authorities are controlling the dengue menace through biological products and aquatic life. In summer zoo administration places ice blocks, electric coolers in cages to provide relief to the animals. Punjab government supports zoo renovation with 125 million rupees which started in 2007, stopped somewhere in the middle but was resumed later. Now it is in the final stages. This programme includes renovation of infrastructure – a small cat section, lion house, snake and reptile house, chimpanzee island, bird aviary, monkey house, duck pond, leopard house, water coolers, benches for sitting and jungle café where rates will be fixed by the administration. A family from Karachi that was at the zoo, found it rather changed after nine years. They were happy they came to this place. Holidays are the days when most people visit the zoo, particularly, public holidays and long weekends while Muharram is the time when there are least visitors.
These photographs were part of an exhibition called ‘End Polio’, organised by the Media Foundation in collaboration with the Lahore Photojournalists Association. The focus of the event was to sensitise photojournalists about importance of the campaign against polio. But we all know the drill. Polio cannot be cured. The only
way to stop Polio is prevention. And all these photographs like the lines
before it in this paragraph are repetitive, clichéd, news fodder in a 24 hour
cycle. The photographs do not show anything new. Except this one: A little boy holding a piece of chalk, a classroom, a
blackboard. There seems to be little evidence that “Good Bye Polio”
written on the blackboard in yellow was written by the boy near the
blackboard, the writing being too high up, but it might be a possibility. The
boy is wearing the same blue jersey as the other kids in the photograph.
It’s his legs that are different. They are artificial limbs.
But here are two things that are different. Where as most of the
photographs are in close-up or closely composed, this one isn’t. The boy is
far away from the lens. And if the objective was to “sensitise” the
photographers themselves, then it is a sensitive one. Not everyone has polio,
nor is it a common sight. The boy in the distance makes the photograph
significant. The air of peeking in or even detachment is how many of us view
illness. The other difference is that many of the photographs have one or more people smiling in it. The age-old cliché of surviving life, of even enjoying it seems apparent in the other photographs: the giggling the laughing, the twinkle. The boy is not laughing. He seems tired, — and lets not jump the gun here, the tiredness might just be that he’s tired because it’s the last class — but in the particular context the photograph was shown in, his look perhaps is the most truthful. It’s not easy to live a handicapped life, nor will it ever be. End Polio was exhibited from April 20 to April 27 at Racecourse Park — Ali Sultan
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There are many pictures. A small child lying,
supposedly his mother, wearing a colourful tunic, opening his crying moth,
someone else (the face obscured) feeding the child liquid drops. A group of
children giggling, their two fingers held high making Vs, showing victory a
small girl, wearing uniform, perhaps in a government school, walking, smiling,
one foot up in the air, frozen in time, a close-up of a small girl with
twinkling eyes, two boys and a woman in wheelchairs the woman staring.
