Despite being displaced by recent rains and floods, the affected people in Sindh are not ready to give up their “tribal values” and seek relief from people belonging to other ethnicities – putting the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in a fix.
On a visit to the rain-hit Sanghar district, Pakistan Today observed many people living in makeshift shelters along roadsides and river embankments.
Instead of the schools and government offices’ buildings that have been set up as relief camps by the provincial and local governments, these people are living without food or medical facilities on their own.
Most of these people belong to different Baloch tribes and are not ready to forget their linguistic and cultural differences in this hour of need.
According to them, they are not allowed to live with their ‘linguistic opponents’ and will not compromise on their tribal values.
In this situation, dispersion of the affected people on basis of ethnicities is severely hindering relief operations.
Not only this, the political parties are also playing a discriminatory role and only helping those who vote for them while neglecting others.
A man living at the camp, 40-year-old Ishaq, son of Faqir Rawat, narrated his story to Pakistan Today.
“My village Sohnu Faqir Umrani Goth was submerged due to heavy rains last month. My house and crops were inundated so we left the village with our families, valuables and livestock. We took shelter at a relief camp set up by an NGO at Khipro Branch – a small irrigation canal.”
“I am an Umrani Baloch and we do not like to live with Sindhis,” Ishaq replied on being asked why he didn’t go to a government relief camp.
The man also invited Pakistan Today for a visit to his camp.
The relief camp was set up with plastic sheets and had a charpoy.
As Ishaq stepped inside, his son started crying.
“My three-year-old son has not eaten anything in the last two days. I do not own a goat or a cow to feed him. I do not have a single paisa in my pocket to buy anything from the market,” he said.
Ishaq’s wife, Pathani, was lying seemingly unconscious in a corner.
On being asked about her, the man said she had been complaining about abdominal pains for the past two days.
Pathani, 37, said she wanted to return to her house. “I asked [Ishaq] to take me to a medical camp for check up, but he refused saying that there are Sindhi doctors and treatment from them is against our values.”
On this, Ishaq said the Sindhis have control over public relief camps. “They misbehave with our women and prefer their community members for distribution of relief goods.”
“[The officials] set conditions before giving us ration and our honour does not allow us to meet their demands,” he added.
Ishaq also criticised the government for not doing enough. “They have not given us a single paisa or ration. Only the NGOs are helping somewhat.”
He also complained about the discriminatory attitude of politicians. “Landlord Ali Ghulam Nizamani took all relief goods to his village Tando Mitha Khan is only giving rations to those who vote for him,” he alleged.
“I will prefer to die instead of bowing my head before Nizamani.”
Prem Sagar, a Project Manager of DevCon, an association for rural development, told Pakistan Today that the NGOs are facing difficulties in relief operations as the affected people are scattered over a large area.
“The people are not ready to come under one roof, resulting in uneven distribution of relief goods.”
He said that Devcon has established many camps for people who were living under open skies. “We are trying to provide facilities at their doorstep, but it is not possible to help every affected person especially with health facilities as the people are not ready to go to other camps to due to their ethnic and tribal differences.”
“If this thinking does not change, chances are that more and more people will fall victim to waterborne diseases that are spreading in the flood-affected areas,” he added.
Rain disaster or not, ‘tribal values’ come first
