A second-hand Eid for the poor

Unable to afford new clothes and shoes, the poor throng the second-hand markets for Eid shopping.

SWAT: With  Eidul Azha around the corner the inflation-hit people flock to Landa Bazaars in Swat to buy cheaper second-hand items as they are unable to afford new accessories.

“I am a labourer and earn Rs300 a day; for me buying new clothes and shoes for six people is out of question. But I could not see my children sad on Eid, therefore I am buying them shoes from here,” said Rahim Khan, a resident of Amankot area, who was sifting through the piles of footwears to find shoes for his children at a stall in Landa Bazaar. The bazaar was filled with poor people, most of them labourers, who are unable to afford new clothes and shoes, but wanting to join in the Eid festivities, make their purchases at the more economical bazaar.

Rashid Khan, a nine grader student told The Express Tribune that his father is a peon in a primary school who earns Rs7,000 and had given Rashid Rs500 to buy shoes for Eid. “I cannot buy a pair of new shoes with this money, therefore I came to the Landa Bazaar. But the prices here are too high and I don’t think I can buy the shoes here either.”

People lamented that it was becoming hard to afford the basic necessities let alone new clothes and shoes.

The salesmen, however, had a different tale to tell. “The number of customers at Eid this year was far higher than the previous ones,” said a shoe salesman adding that more than half the crowd was only window shopping.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th,  2011.