It seems even nature does not mete out a fair hand. The economically worst-off sections of society tend to suffer most acutely, even in cases of natural disaster. The six people, including four small children, who died under a factory wall that collapsed on them in a fierce storm in Lahore Wednesday, were amongst the poorest of citizens. The children and their mother who died in the incident, were scavenging for items from rubbish heaps. Another was a labourer attempting to find shelter near the wall.
The children, in normal circumstances should have been at school or within the safety of their homes, rather than at work in a desperate bid to help their family survive. The fact that the grief-stricken father of the children did not even have enough money to pay for their burial and that of his wife underscores the stark economic realities facing such families, which compel them to send even children out to labour. In similar natural disasters, be these floods or rain, it is again the most deprived people who are worst affected, specially the children who are vulnerable to illnesses caused by stagnating water.
While the arrest of the factory owner Friday, on Punjab Chief Minister's instructions soon after the tragic incident, comes as a sign of a swift official response, there is some doubt as to the precise purpose it is intended to serve. It is as yet unclear if the owner of the factory was in any way guilty of criminal negligence, or whether the collapse of the wall, crushing to death those standing near it during a fierce storm was simply an act of nature against which he was powerless to act.
Only an inquiry into the incident can properly establish the facts. But also important is the need to consider on a wider scale the safety of the most vulnerable members of society. Simply handing out cheques to the families of the victims after each such tragedy can neither compensate the loss suffered nor serve any wider social purpose by alleviating the stark poverty.
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