Health is wealth’, an old but excellent proverb is unfortunately missing in our country. A large number of people have their meals outside their homes. Lahore is a large city with people from the whole province coming to work here. Most of them eat outdoors as they do not have families who can cook for them. The small road side food places are very unhygienic, and are the cause of illness for many.
The poor employees of these ‘dhabas’ also wear dirty clothes and have no place to take a bath or wash dishes. The cooks often do not wash their hands after using the toilet. Such unhygienic behaviour is spreading diseases, and as the government supplies no free clinics or medication, our nation suffers. I would like to request authorities to have some kind of standard which these places can follow, instead of just closing them down, and give them practical help so that they can improve. An uninterrupted supply of running water could tremendously help them and other such practical issues could be addressed to make Pakistan a healthy country. Maybe companies which make detergents and soap could help them. This could be turned into a promotional event and would even save the cost of advertisement.
M SHAHID HUSSAIN,
Lahore, May 31.