Cold-shouldered: Who will meat their needs?

While domestic helpers get their share from employers, slum residents are ignored.

ISLAMABAD:

The spirit of Eidul Azha lies not only in the act of sacrifice, but also in the distribution of meat much awaited by those who cannot afford the privilege.

As per the Islamic law, meat from sacrificed animals must be divided in three equal parts – for one’s own use, to be distributed among relatives and to be given to the poor, but this is rarely followed.

“The rich stow it all away in their freezers,” claimed 55-year-old Samuel Nathaniel, an employee of a boys’ college. He shared his disillusionment with a previous employer who asked him to help stow sacrificial meat into his freezer, only to discover last year’s meat still present on a shelf.

“It was rotting away,” he scoffed, lighting a cigarette outside his house in a slum near G-8.

Nomi, a young man who stood nearby, felt it wasn’t just that the rich were keeping the meat to themselves, the reality was that unless the poor did not seek their share; nobody was going to come to their slum.

“Those who work as domestic helpers get their shares from their employers, but nobody has come to us with anything,” said housewife Nasreen Akhtar, busily washing dishes on her rooftop.

Her neighbour, Farzana Ishaq who works as a domestic helper, was bringing rice to boil while her family of eight gathered around her in a roofless stone house. Her family had enjoyed their portion of the meat from her employer’s sacrifice the previous night. “I cook the meat at my employer’s house and bring it home because if we don’t ask for our share, there is no way we will get it here,” she said.

Still there are many people who distribute more than the required share among the poor and sometimes they even donate animals to charitable organisations to ensure it reaches those who deserve it, said Nadeem, who works at a development organisation.

But rising food inflation, according to Nadeem, has increased the number of those in need.

It is estimated that over 10 million animals are slaughtered across Pakistan on the occasion of Eidul Azha, costing a little over $3 billion, according to Wikipedia.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2012.