Islamabad, Pakistan – Every morning, Irshad Bibi walks nearly 10km (6 miles) from her one-bedroom house in Mehrabadi, a low-income neighbourhood in Islamabad’s suburbs, hoping to find work.
Almost a year ago, Bibi quit her job as a housemaid to look after her unwell husband, who was afflicted with hepatitis-C. He passed away four months ago.
Since then, the 38-year-old mother of five children has no regular source of income.
“There are days my children and I go to sleep without anything in our stomach except water and maybe one piece of bread,” she told Al Jazeera.
“I live in a small room with a fan and a bulb, yet last month my [electricity] bill was more than 9,000 rupees ($30) when it never used to be more than 1,500 rupees ($5) before. How am I going to pay that?”
Bibi is among millions of Pakistanis facing the consequences of an unprecedented economic crisis in their country, forcing it to seek a $3bn financial bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July.
Link from www.aljazeera.com