During this skyrocketing rate of inflation and extreme pov­erty, oodles of sexual abuses are cropping up, and one of the less-noticed abuses is home prosti­tution. Thanks to the financial strain in survival-challenging sit­uations, some Pakistani families, out of desperation, had to engage in prostitution within the confines of their homes and are still prac­ticing this shameless activity in or­der to meet basic needs and re­duce poverty.

Tragically, this soaring inflation rate has been compelling the blue-collar class to exploit their own daughters in the guise of home prostitution—the sole means of meeting basic needs for these low­er-class families.

Sadat Hassan Manto’s (a re­nowned Pakistani fiction writer) quote, “Meal is the only religion of the hungry stomach,” further sheds light on the reasons and compulsions behind this domestic violence. The families who are liv­ing below the poverty line at this moment are helpless to meet ba­sic domestic needs. The prices of domestic items are rising day by day, and the government isn’t in the mood to facilitate its people by providing them relief by not hiking these prices. As a result, many families are reluctantly go­ing through prostitution within the confines of their homes, ruin­ing the lives of their teenagers—an abhorrent act and negligence of the government. Hundreds of flowers are being deflowered, and hundreds of innocent butterflies are being clutched and ruined by the ferocious hands of wolves for the sake of a two-time meal.

This loathsome profession has been prevailing since 2020, and so far, there seems to be no letup in this abhorrent act—an act of do­mestic earning.

The current increasing pace of inflation is also once again sup­porting this profession. Families, out of desperation, are now involv­ing their daughters in prostitution within their own homes. 

Now, who is responsible for this social abuse—the government or the people themselves, who are haplessly using their daughters as means of earning a two-time meal? Who will address the elephant in the room? Who will call the cat?

IQRAR HUSSAIN,

Sindh.