A lot of lives of innocent children would have been saved if their plight had come to public notice in January
More than 200 children died in Thar over the last three months. And this month alone, 60 more have lost their lives. News of these deaths hit the headlines only last week, which means nobody was listening to the sobs of mourning mothers all this time. Even the deaths of around 140 children during January and February could not move the hearts of insensitive and indifferent lawmakers in the area.
It seems the People’s Party has no set procedure to judge lawmakers’ performance. This is one reason lawmakers from Thar took no pains to keep aware of the pain and suffering of people in their constituency. Even the media was busy elsewhere, fully engrossed in the Sindh cultural festival and talks between the government and the Taliban. The people of Thar continued to be ignored.
When the media did turn its attention to Thar only this month, it appeared as if the tragedy had developed overnight. It seemed the media positioned itself to play the role of superman and savior, coming to the aid of Tharis when the rest of the world ignored them.
A lot of lives of innocent children would have been saved if their plight had come to public notice in January. Such loss of life is criminal, and unpardonable. There seems little humanity left in the lawmakers and bureaucrats of Thar. They hoarded wheat out of greed and let poor people, especially children, die. My heart weeps, and head hangs in shame, when in shame when I see lawmakers using this tragedy for photo opportunities and uploading them on twitter. They have learnt nothing from this disaster.
There is extreme poverty in Thar, which is why people there cannot fight for their rights, and are condemned to food shortage, contaminated water, and poor health.
Firstly, it was the bureaucrats of Thar who did not declare emergency despite the deaths over the last three months. They showed callousness and indifference by not attending to the needs of starving children. Then the lawmakers of the area followed the same path of negligence, and turned a blind eye to the plight of the people. They should have taken the issue up with the Sindh CM and initiated a rescue plan on war footing.
There is extreme poverty in Thar, which is why people there cannot fight for their rights, and are condemned to food shortage, contaminated water, and poor health. Last year I met a young Thari boy in Hyderabad. He was happy because he worked as a cook and drew a monthly salary of Rs4000. He said he regularly sent all his earnings to his father back home.
The federal and provincial governments have no strategy for poverty reduction. According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) report, Clustered Deprivation, prepared with the financial and technical assistance of United Nation Development Program, there are 58.7 million people below poverty line in the country. Balochistan tops the poverty index with 52 per cent of its households below the poverty line, followed by 32 per cent, 33 per cent and 19 per cent respectively for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh and Punjab. In Punjab, Rajanpur is on top of the list with 44 per cent households falling below the poverty line.
Pakistan Meteorology Department is being blamed for not informing Sindh government for no rains in Thar. Luckily, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has warned in advance about a severe water shortage in Karachi with the start of March. The director KWSB said the water shortage has developed due to less rains and little water in Hub Dam. The Sindh government has no plans for the moment to meet this water scarcity in spite of having been forewarned.
Firstly, it was the bureaucrats of Thar who did not declare emergency despite the deaths over the last three months. They showed callousness and indifference by not attending to the needs of starving children. Then the lawmakers of the area followed the same path of negligence, and turned a blind eye to the plight of the people.
The Sindh Government and the media have come into full action after the tragedy in Thar. The sudden media hype over Thar and the hysteric behavior of some columnists in their write ups are not justified at this stage. Such acts can be taken as an attempt of political exploitation of Thar issue. One wonders why the Sindh CM is being asked to resign when there were no such demands from the Punjab and KPK chief ministers after the Dengue disaster and DI Khan jail break. The provincial government’s poor track record is no secret, but the CM was the first to admit bureaucratic negligence. However, he will have to go one step further and demand resignation from the area’s lawmakers.
A huge number of funds have been promised by the federal and provincial governments along with private stakeholders to lessen the pain and plight of Tharis. Fair and transparent distribution of the donations and funds to the affectees would be a huge challenge for the Sindh government in the face of dysfunctional and corrupt bureaucrats and feudal-minded lawmakers. Thar is the least developed district of Sindh and it needs development on immediate and permanent basis. Tharis need to be employed by the government and private sector stakeholders in order to control poverty there. There is need of a comprehensive poverty alleviation strategy to save the entire country from turning into Thar.
