About the Author(s)
Malik Najeeb
Author is a fourth-year BS Law student at the University of Peshawar, is a perceptive writer with a keen eye for societal issues. His articles delve into the often-overlooked problems that significantly impact our society, bringing attention to critical issues that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Whenever you think or hear of the word housing society, you get an amazing vibe out of it. With it, you picture enormous mansions, a huge market arena, amusement parks, and lush gardens, a place where every comfort is within reach. It’s a place seemingly untouched by troubles and no such words as traffic, noise, or road blockage are heard there. In these modern enclaves, you’ll find top-tier schools for your children, state-of-the-art hospitals, sprawling malls, and more. It’s an idyllic setting where one can have it all.
But have you ever wondered about the fact, for whom housing societies are designed? When you are asked these questions, you will say for those who want an escape from the hectic city life. But unfortunately, this notion isn’t true because everyone wants to get rid of this kind of city lifestyle and no one wants to stay in a place like this forever. so, when you ponder on it you will get to know these are made keeping in mind the luxurious lifestyle of rich people without considering the poor or lower middle class.
That’s the only problem we have been having till now but when you see the broader picture of this, you’ll be amazed to know that it creates a significant issue, one that’s more damaging then it might seem at first. Its fatal for our upcoming generations let me show you how. For instance, take an average neighborhood where all three classes of people were living together in harmony, sharing norms and values, understanding each other. Where everyone respects each other regardless of their financial standards, where they live as equals, they are together both in hard times and good times, they pray together, they shop together in the same market, their kids play together and grow together, even their kids never ever thought about any financial differences between them because they had never seen any before. They all understood each other and that harmonious coexistence was called a healthy and happy society.
Then emerges a massive and modern housing society, where only rich and somehow some of upper middle class manage to get a house there and where there is no concept of poor or lower middle class and even no home for them to live. It’s not like they don’t want to live in these enclaves, it’s because they can’t afford these luxury houses. Though we see these lower-class individuals but only as a peon, laborer, security guard, gardener and driver for wealthy residents. And this concept is not only destroying our mind set but also ripping apart the precious fabric of our norms, and values.
For instance, you are living in a luxury housing society and initially it won’t be a problem for you because you just moved here from that typical neighborhood and you still consider lower class as part of your society. However, you may start a proper family life here and your children will grow up in this environment where only elites rule. Now when they reach their teenage, there is a proper new mindset encoded within them where they have only seen lower middle class as their servants nor do they consider these individuals as part of their society and its totally not their fault, it’s the environment that made them behave in this way and here at this point a line is drawn between two classes because now there is nothing common between them to share nor do they accept each other. And here the feelings of superiority and inferiority take its part. This thing is causing huge damage to our society because when this happens then there is no kind of relationship left between these classes but as lord and servant. This is what called class discrimination.
Our ancestors sacrificed their own lives and fought hard to end this feudal culture in our country where these feudal lords would live as they want, where their was the concept of slavery, where lower class had no right but to obey their lords. And we as a responsible nation came up with a modern kind of feudal system where lords or elites have a defined place to live with all kinds of luxuries in it, where lower class people are not allowed but only as slaves, where there are separate markets to cater these so-called elites and, in these markets, or malls the word brand is celebrated by mocking lower class.
That’s the society we are heading to and its incumbent upon us to ponder on these things.
