Imagine spending your hard-earned money to get the basic rights that the government is constitutionally responsible for fulfilling. Today, every fundamental need of people, once provided by the state as a fundamental right, is selling like a luxury.
Clean water, presented by nature to be universally accessible, is now out of reach for many. Healthcare, a necessity of life, is unavailable to millions. Public education is almost disreputable, while public transport is appallingly irresponsible. Utility bills arrive regularly, yet the services themselves remain miserably unreliable. Citizens in multiple areas rely on expensive LPG cylinders due to gas load shedding. Failing public security forces citizens to pay for private security services, and jobs are extinct from the market, urging the public to live hand to mouth.
Access to all these basics is unaffordable for most of the people. Social media platforms are filled with citizens crying over the high costs of electricity, gas and water utilities. Those who cannot arrange money take serious steps like suicide. Patients lose their lives at the gates of hospitals due to staff mismanagement, lack of medical facilities, or families’ failure to afford immediate charges. A severe shortage of doctors is also a cause of increasing deaths, as professionals choose to practice abroad. Government institutions of education fail to provide valuable practical knowledge and focus on cramming. This is worsened by a lack of dedication among staff members and hiring processes influenced by favouritism, which suppresses the right of more deserving, qualified candidates.
Education
Rather than producing ethical officers, civic leaders, scientists, and scholars, the failing educational system limits the future prospects of the youth, often driving them toward informal or irregular labour. Science education is strictly theoretical, as practical laboratory work is largely ignored. Although public schools are accessible to a certain extent, the quality of knowledge there is questionable. Unchecked teacher absenteeism leaves students left to self-study. They know they will get a salary at the start of the month without struggle. Students are unpredictably involved in bunking, drugs and other adult activities. Children are prematurely exposed to harsh realities, stripping them of their innocence. A centre which was once considered a house of scholars is now an origin of evils.
Parents who analyse these scenarios try to avoid government school. They prefer to send their kids to private institutions which are also not so ideal for knowledge but better than public schools. These institutions demand overpriced fees just to teach students how to cram. According to Pakistan Education Statistics (PES), almost 43.8% of educational institutions are private, with 46.5% of students enrolled in them, and 56.2% are public, with 53.5% of students enrolled. These students in public sectors are either self-studying to become better in life or studying for a degree to get a government job in the future. If we talk about teachers in public sectors, they exploit the lack of administrative accountability. A few dedicated educators attempt to work hard, but they are teased by systematic corruption. The condition of private educators is pitiable, as average monthly salaries range from PKR 8,000 to PKR 20,000, and in reputable centres, it ranges from PKR 20,000 to PKR 60,000. A teacher spending half of their day in school faces exploitation with no respect and rest at all.
Healthcare
The condition of public hospitals is so overwhelming that only those facing financial issues seek treatment there, in the hope of saving a life. The middle class and upper class prefer private hospitals to preserve their dignity. Public hospitals illustrate the severe decay of social welfare. Patients are treated with negligence and are often denied proper medical attention unless near to death. Endless queues of citizens waiting for their registration tokens make people beg for their basic right to live. Patients who are disgusted by life have to wait for their turn. After a whole day when it’s their turn for a checkup, they find a doctor unavailable or are treated with dismissive attitudes, as if medical attention were a personal favour; security staff often interact with patients hostilely, forcing them to stay tolerant despite bad health. The few who successfully see a doctor are handed a prescription that is a sign of a new, tiring journey of long queues of people standing for poorly managed medicines.
Doctors who studied with the dream of a respectful career and an ideal life are instead forced to manage a large number of the patients alone for uneven salaries. They work day and night to build a career. When they see no viable scope within the country, they move abroad, where they get golden opportunities and better careers. This migration causes a shortage of doctors and severe mismanagement across the healthcare sector.
Cause behind privatisation of basic living
There are multiple reasons behind the shift from public services to privatisation:
Lack of awareness: The public unaware of its constitutional rights allows governance to work without checks and balances. According to Maximilien Robespierre:
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”
Failure of service delivery: When there is no proper system to manage or question the system, the government fails to provide facilities to the state and protect the public’s rights.
Lack of accountability: When people do not hold the government accountable for its activities or the government does not question the irresponsible behaviour of its employees, the system begins to disrupt and corruption begins to deprive common citizens of their fundamental rights.
Conclusion
Privatisation of basic living is a process of buying the necessities of life that are responsibilities of government to provide commons. Unaware people drive unethical and irresponsible governments. A country with a compromising population and a freely ruling government cannot survive longer as people begin to migrate or tolerate and gradually transform into an extremely ignorant society. According to Hazrat Muhammad PBUH:
“Every one of you is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects. The leader who has been put in charge of the people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects.”
(Sahih al-Bukhari 7138, Sahih Muslim 1829)