Inflation pushes daily wagers onto pavements

The number of people spending nights outdoors has particularly increased along Murree Road, from Mareer Chowk to Faizabad, including Chandni Chowk, Rehmanabad, Liaquat Bagh Chowk and the benches inside Liaquat Bagh.

Similar scenes are witnessed around General Bus Stand Pirwadhai, the lawns of the three allied hospitals, Ganjmandi Bazaar, Pirwadhai Jamia Masjid Road, Banni Chowk, Iqbal Road, Moti Bazaar, Bohar Bazaar, Narnkari Bazaar, Hamilton Road, Tyre Bazaar, Naya Mohalla, the inner Sarafa Bazaar, Chhota Bazaar Saddar, Girja Road, Dhoke Syedan Road, Bara Bazaar, Ratta Qadim, Lakri Pul and Pohri Pul.

Most of these workers have arrived from various cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and remote areas of northern Punjab in search of employment. During the day, they earn through loading and unloading, working with goods transporters and other daily-wage jobs, while at night they sleep on pavements, carts, roadside platforms and even parked vehicles.

Several charitable hotel owners provide free meals at designated points in Raja Bazaar, Jamia Masjid Road and Bara Bazaar. Workers often arrive an hour before meals and sit in queues on the ground. Destitute women from poor families also arrive with their children to receive free food.

Labourers sleeping beneath the Metrobus track in Ganjmandi, Chandni Chowk and Rehmanabad said they generally earned between Rs700 and Rs1,000 a day, while on some days their income was even lower.

Occasionally, they managed to earn up to Rs1,500. They said they had travelled to Rawalpindi from Peshawar, Nowshera, Buner, Mardan, Kohat, Waziristan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rojhan Jamali, Layyah and Jhang in search of work. Labourers Muhammad Maskeen, Allah Rakha, Faisal Mahmood and Chan Waiz said their meagre incomes prevented them from staying in small hotels or inns.

Some inns, they said, charged around Rs200 for an overnight stay from 10pm to 6am or 7am, an amount they could not afford every night. "We cannot afford even a small room or an inn every night, so we sleep on pavements, roadsides or beneath the Metrobus track," they said.

Many labourers have also started spending nights in hospital lawns and corridors, claiming to be relatives of patients. They also receive meals from philanthropists who visit hospitals to distribute free food. Chan Waiz, who has worked in Ganjmandi for five years, said he earned between Rs1,000 and Rs1,200 a day and sometimes managed to make Rs1,500.