‘Children of God’ refused relief

As the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) predicts more monsoon rain in the days to come, the worst victims of rain and breaches in a monsoon-swollen Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) in Badin district — which brought rainwater from upper Sindh districts in to Badin – the Pakistani Dalits or untouchables have been denied accommodation in relief camps due to their social positioning.
In the last four weeks since monsoon-swollen drains and LBOD burst its banks and caused recent history’s worst ever catastrophic disaster, the so-called traditional bigotry have run just as deep as the floodwater. Despite torrential rain, a majority of these Hindu Dalits in Badin have been living under open sky, as they were not allowed in to the relief camps by Muslims.
More tragic has been the federal government’s ban on NGOs and international donors to work in these areas for “security reasons”, while the government itself is yet to start relief operations. The religious extremist organisations that have been providing relief in Badin have completely ignored the Dalits or Harijans, which means “Children of God”.
Cahnesar Bheel, a Dalit by social norms and a farmer by profession, resident of Goth Gomando Bheel Union Council Ghado, Taluka Golarchi [Shaheed Fazil Rahu], is one of around 700 Dalits of his village that have been living under open sky along the banks of Soorahdi Sakh Canal. “Our village is between the two drains and during rain, both burst and inundated our village from each side. We rushed to a nearby relief camp set up inside a government school, but the people did not allowed us to live inside the camp, so we came here and started living under open sky,” Bheel told Pakistan Today.
Bheel said the people living inside the camps told them that they were untouchables and were not allowed to live with Muslims. His village comprises of 80 households with 700 people, all of who are Dalits. “This is not the only village of Dalits in the district that is living under the open sky, there are many more Dalits living under the open sky on Khoski Road, Seerani, Lonwari Sharif and other areas,” said writer and civil society activist Ameer Mandhro. A similar case occurred with Dalits of Pibhu Kolhi village in Tando Bagho.
“There is no place to go, so we are simply living outside the school under the open sky. A kind hearted man inside the camp allotted one isolated class room which is away from the main building where two families are living and the reaming villagers are living under open sky despite continued rain,” said one villager. He said some philanthropists came to provide food to the residents of the relief camp, but they were not given any ration and were cooking food under the open sky.
Dalits are social outcasts at the bottom of the Hindu caste ladder and are common in India, but the practice has deep roots even in Pakistan. Even the government of Pakistan has encouraged this prejudice by declaring officially these Dalits as scheduled caste. Despite its tall claims, the PPP government has not nominated even a single Dalit for Sindh Assembly seat.
All four PPP Hindu assembly members are from so-called upper caste. The minister for Minority Affairs Mohan Lal Kohistani has so far done nothing providing relief to affected Hindu-population. Kohistani said he was busy in meeting at the Chief Minister’s House and would comment on the issue later.
However, sources said the minister was trying to get a licence for a wine shop from the competent authority, the Sindh chief minister. In the wake of last year’s floods and this year’s monsoon rain, his ministry has not set up even a single camp in the province to help Hindus, Christians or any other religious minority. “In normal days, these Dalits cannot even claim a seat in public transport, how do we expect them to get space in relief camps? It’s the same mentality,” said human rights activist Sameer Mandhro. He said not only the government, but civil society organisations, who claimed to work indiscriminately, were also ignoring the Dalits.