There were dozens of rickshaws — from two strokes to four strokes and three-seaters to 12-seaters — but no four-wheelers for hire. Our prospects were no better when we approached the Korangi Expressway. Then suddenly a brain wave hit us. Why not take a rickshaw ride to the Aga Khan Hospital? Surely, we could find a stream of parked taxis waiting for passengers there.
On the way, one of my colleagues diverted my attention to a serious development: the city is rapidly losing its middle class — the class which serves as a bridge between the rich and the poor. Moreover, my colleague pointed out that the utilities associated with the middle class, such as taxis, are also vanishing at the same speed. Like the decline of cinemas and the land grabbing of parks, the taxis of Karachi are fast disappearing. They have been replaced by private cars mostly owned by the rich and the crudely-built multi-seat rickshaws which are used by the poor masses.
Looking at the rise in street crimes and the proliferation of extortion rackets, one wonders how Karachi’s residents can cope with these threats day in and day out. The vanishing of taxis is not the only signpost about the death of the middle class. There are probably dozens of other things which also expose the plight of the middle class such as the decline in the quality of educational institutions attended by the middle class, grabbing of their entertainment facilities, skyrocketing commodity prices and shrinking job opportunities.
The worrying thing connected to this issue is the social impacts of it on the society. We must remember that the middle class not only serves as a bridge between the upper and poor classes, but also serves as hope for the poor. If the trend of causing trouble to the middle class is not stopped, then crime of all sorts will only increase.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2014.
COMMENTS (6)
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@I. and Abbas Khalid.
If buying a bike takes someone from the poor class to middle than there are 1.8 million bikes in the city so it mean that all the poor people who can afford half liter petrol in their bikes are middle class. It also show that around 1.8 million families in the city are middle class and only those people who sleep on footpaths are poor. How many people in the city have their own cars and how many just only dream about the buying a car. Rickshaws have cannibalized the taxis is a fact but rickshaw is not the ride of middle class man. It was and it is for the poor class.
@Abdu Jaafar - For people like you it is easy to blame the Government so what have you done to improve your community to end corruption & nepotism ? *All of you moan & groan but do very little to better the conditions in your area! *
So the author couldn't find a cab in a particular neighborhood on a particular night and concluded the middle class was dying? Not sure if that's even credible anecdotal evidence of anything.
The taxis have been cannibalized by the rickshaws. The article is a based on a slippery slope arguement.
Another factor in taxis disappearing could be the fact that the middle class has become mobile ( it has its own cars and bikes to move around). So may be the middle class is not dying but growing.
Our Government is a Graveyard of MoU's.Nothing Special happens and seriously no one cares for the nation.The Government just only know how to travel and how to transfer money.