LAHORE: Sabir Arif, a student of finance and cost
management in one of Lahore’s private institutions
lives in a hut made of wood, cloth and plastic
sheets. His only source of income is the private
tuitions he provides to others to keep his makeshift
home intact.
The son of a daily wager, Sabir is not a typical
victim of abject poverty in the city. Reminiscing
about how he read Russian literature when he came
across old story books while picking garbage in
class seven, Sabir says his great challenge in life
has been his caste – that he was born a Deendar
Changar – Pakistan’s version of the ‘untouchables’.
Contrary to popular belief, caste in Pakistan has
been a means of systematic discrimination. The lower
castes here are Pakistan’s downtrodden, including
Massalis also known as Muslim Sheikhs,Choorahs who
are majority Christian and Chamars or Changars who
are also called Deendars if they practice Islam. In
Punjab and Sindh these include the scheduled Hindu
castes that serve as farm workers and bonded
laborers.
Sabir admits that he faces greater discrimination
than most of his “biradari” because he refused to
stick to what is the generally acceptable position
and career path of his caste. Living in the slums,
and being considered lowest of the low in a society
fixated on high and low birth, Sabir was always at
the periphery, but his decision to pursue education
did not sit well with the local community.
Muhammad Arif, his father who gets labor jobs with
the help of his donkey cart, says he struggled with
the decision of sending his children to school,
“People of our biradari said that education was not
for our people, that I should make Sabir help me
with daily work, but I decided against it and have
not sent my younger children to work as live-in
domestic helpers like others in our community or
forced them into working only.”
Discouraged, discriminated against and lacking any
political identity, the city is now Sabir’s home, as
it is easier for people of lower castes to access
schooling and get odd jobs in urban hubs as compared
to rural settings, where discrimination is far
higher.
Abdul Rasheed Dholka, a political activist of
Mazdoor Kissan Party in Sargodha has worked with
lower caste farm workers, and says that in rare
cases when young men from these communities are
hired as peons or clerks, they try to cut off ties
with their community and hide identity to avoid
discrimination.
“Decades of oppression have led to circumstances
where these people don’t even know how to stand up
for their rights, because there is no
representation,” he adds.
Dholka’s words reflect in Sabir’s thoughts, as the
young man says he sometimes feels “like the Africans
in South Africa or the Jews in Nazi Germany”.
However, despite the twin challenges of poverty and
his birth into the bottom of the social rung, Sabir
manages to remain hopeful, and talks of changing the
country into a better home someday.
Haris Gazdar, Director and Senior Researcher,
Collective for Social Science Research in his paper
“Class, Caste or Race: Veils over Social Oppression
in Pakistan” argues that caste based marginalization
is common in Pakistan.
“The trouble is that the biradaris and quoms are not
all equal, and public silencing of the issue is very
much about perpetuating existing hierarchies. The
inequality is so severe and deeply embedded in parts
of the country that it is hardly even noticed.”
