by Hasan Mansoor
Abdus Sattar Edhi remembers a tearful mother who agonised over whether or not to abandon her three-year-old son to charity after her husband lost his job.
"Three years ago, we used to receive a couple of kids across the country a day, but the number is rising mainly because our people's economic situation is weakening," said Edhi, who heads the charitable Edhi Foundation.
"Now we receive one or two kids every day just in Karachi, and across the country five or six," he said.
On the porch outside the charity's head office in Pakistan's depressed economic capital of Karachi, metal cradles hang from chains beneath a sign that reads: "Do not kill, lay them here."
Parents lay up to 40 children a month in the cradles -- a heartbreaking indication of just how tough it has become to feed and clothe families in a country where the economic situation is worsening almost daily.
Already reeling from years of constant bomb attacks, regional insurgencies, and battles between government troops and Islamist extremists in the northwest, Pakistani economy has little positives to offer to its 170 million population.
Food prices have soared and overall inflation is rising again after a brief decline from all-time high 25 percent in 2009.
In November 2009, the International Monetary Fund approved a 7.6 billion-dollar bail-out package to stabilise Pakistan's economy and avoid a balance of payments crisis and defaults on foreign loans.
Pakistan's crippling energy shortages have been blamed on corruption, short-sightedness, debts, a creaking distribution system and a lack of money or refusal to invest public funds in renewable energy as demand grows.
Pakistan produces only around 80 percent of its electricity needs and each year as temperatures rise towards 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), furious crowds riot across the country, heaping pressure on the unpopular government.
White-collar jobs are also disappearing as managers struggle to keep businesses afloat.
According to Edhi, this was the undoing of Jehan Ara, who in floods of tears lay her toddler in a crib as she could no longer to afford to care for him.
"She said 'I'm leaving him until we have the means to raise him. His father is a labourer who has lost his job in a mill and my earnings are not enough to feed him and my two older kids'," Edhi remembered.
The foundation runs 18 centres across the country, housing more than 2,000 children at any one time. In Karachi, there are about 200.
The children live in dormitories, attend school classes, share a communal play area and go on monthly outings.
Sometimes, Edhi said, the children ask where their parents are.
"Someone threw me in the cradle and I've been here ever since. It is now my family," says Mohsin, who is nicknamed Kaka, meaning little boy.
Anwer Kazmi, an official at Edhi's foundation, said there are 320 cradles outside Edhi offices nationwide, including 40 in Karachi.
-- As times getting tougher, more children are left --
Pakistan has suffered from crushing poverty since it was created almost 64 years ago when a century of British rule ended. Today it is number 125 on the UN's human development index of 169 countries.
Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) has plunged to 2 percent in the current fiscal year, which was six percent at its peak in 2008.
"If people stop leaving their children at my doorstep it would show Pakistan is on the path of prosperity," said Edhi. "But since cradles are continuously filling at my centres, I don't see it happening in near future."
On the pavement outside a nearby restaurant, kitchen staff set down lentil soup and bread -- charity for the children.
Kaiser Bengali, an economist and former member of the government's economic council, said 40 percent of Pakistan's population live on one dollar a day or less. The government puts the figure at 33 percent.
Food prices that have increased manifold since 2005 only made the poor poorer, Bengali said.
Imran Ali, 32, worked in a knitwear factory in Karachi's slum neighbourhood of Korangi, where he earned 200-300 rupees (2.5 to 3.6 dollars) a day depending on how many shirts he stitched, until his services were terminated.
"I am a father of four and can't afford to live without working. It's impossible to find a job anywhere now and people like me don't have the savings to start working independently," he said.
With little hope of finding another job, he says his family depends on what his 14-year-old son earns selling flowers at traffic lights to supplement his wife's salary as a maid.
"Their earnings are too little to buy bread for all and keep the other kids in school," he said.
Pakistan, which has watched arch rival India embark on the path to prosperity and regional superpower status, was slapped with heavy sanctions after going nuclear in 1998, further suffocating economic development.
Former president Pervez Musharraf's decision within hours of the September 11, 2001 attacks to back the US-led "war on terror" saw Washington pump in 10 billion dollars of aid money and cancel billions more in foreign debt.
Economists warn against a vicious cycle, saying mounting economic problems boost civil disturbances and fan the flames of militancy.
The government has blamed the economic woes on the fight against terrorism, but many ordinary people accuse the authorities of squandering aid money.
Abdus Sattar Edhi remembers a tearful mother who agonised over whether or not to abandon her three-year-old son to charity after her husband lost his job.
"Three years ago, we used to receive a couple of kids across the country a day, but the number is rising mainly because our people's economic situation is weakening," said Edhi, who heads the charitable Edhi Foundation.
"Now we receive one or two kids every day just in Karachi, and across the country five or six," he said.
On the porch outside the charity's head office in Pakistan's depressed economic capital of Karachi, metal cradles hang from chains beneath a sign that reads: "Do not kill, lay them here."
Parents lay up to 40 children a month in the cradles -- a heartbreaking indication of just how tough it has become to feed and clothe families in a country where the economic situation is worsening almost daily.
Already reeling from years of constant bomb attacks, regional insurgencies, and battles between government troops and Islamist extremists in the northwest, Pakistani economy has little positives to offer to its 170 million population.
Food prices have soared and overall inflation is rising again after a brief decline from all-time high 25 percent in 2009.
In November 2009, the International Monetary Fund approved a 7.6 billion-dollar bail-out package to stabilise Pakistan's economy and avoid a balance of payments crisis and defaults on foreign loans.
Pakistan's crippling energy shortages have been blamed on corruption, short-sightedness, debts, a creaking distribution system and a lack of money or refusal to invest public funds in renewable energy as demand grows.
Pakistan produces only around 80 percent of its electricity needs and each year as temperatures rise towards 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), furious crowds riot across the country, heaping pressure on the unpopular government.
White-collar jobs are also disappearing as managers struggle to keep businesses afloat.
According to Edhi, this was the undoing of Jehan Ara, who in floods of tears lay her toddler in a crib as she could no longer to afford to care for him.
"She said 'I'm leaving him until we have the means to raise him. His father is a labourer who has lost his job in a mill and my earnings are not enough to feed him and my two older kids'," Edhi remembered.
The foundation runs 18 centres across the country, housing more than 2,000 children at any one time. In Karachi, there are about 200.
The children live in dormitories, attend school classes, share a communal play area and go on monthly outings.
Sometimes, Edhi said, the children ask where their parents are.
"Someone threw me in the cradle and I've been here ever since. It is now my family," says Mohsin, who is nicknamed Kaka, meaning little boy.
Anwer Kazmi, an official at Edhi's foundation, said there are 320 cradles outside Edhi offices nationwide, including 40 in Karachi.
-- As times getting tougher, more children are left --
Pakistan has suffered from crushing poverty since it was created almost 64 years ago when a century of British rule ended. Today it is number 125 on the UN's human development index of 169 countries.
Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP) has plunged to 2 percent in the current fiscal year, which was six percent at its peak in 2008.
"If people stop leaving their children at my doorstep it would show Pakistan is on the path of prosperity," said Edhi. "But since cradles are continuously filling at my centres, I don't see it happening in near future."
On the pavement outside a nearby restaurant, kitchen staff set down lentil soup and bread -- charity for the children.
Kaiser Bengali, an economist and former member of the government's economic council, said 40 percent of Pakistan's population live on one dollar a day or less. The government puts the figure at 33 percent.
Food prices that have increased manifold since 2005 only made the poor poorer, Bengali said.
Imran Ali, 32, worked in a knitwear factory in Karachi's slum neighbourhood of Korangi, where he earned 200-300 rupees (2.5 to 3.6 dollars) a day depending on how many shirts he stitched, until his services were terminated.
"I am a father of four and can't afford to live without working. It's impossible to find a job anywhere now and people like me don't have the savings to start working independently," he said.
With little hope of finding another job, he says his family depends on what his 14-year-old son earns selling flowers at traffic lights to supplement his wife's salary as a maid.
"Their earnings are too little to buy bread for all and keep the other kids in school," he said.
Pakistan, which has watched arch rival India embark on the path to prosperity and regional superpower status, was slapped with heavy sanctions after going nuclear in 1998, further suffocating economic development.
Former president Pervez Musharraf's decision within hours of the September 11, 2001 attacks to back the US-led "war on terror" saw Washington pump in 10 billion dollars of aid money and cancel billions more in foreign debt.
Economists warn against a vicious cycle, saying mounting economic problems boost civil disturbances and fan the flames of militancy.
The government has blamed the economic woes on the fight against terrorism, but many ordinary people accuse the authorities of squandering aid money.
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