Mubarak Ali Baloch
Once beautifully dotted with the growing population of peacocks and gleefully jumping flocks of deer Tharparkar’s vast expanse of desert is now experiencing the continual famine like situation causing starvation. Last year peacocks suffered epidemic outbreak which drastically reduced birds’ population and deer suffered the hunters’ hunt making it almost extinct. And now it is the child mortality afflicting the area. Tharparkar’s district is headquartered at Mithi. This four tehsils district with 64 union councils and with 1.5 million population has usually been in adversity mainly due to long spells of drought. Continuous drought situation for consecutive few seasons has now become excruciating compelling people to live in absolute poverty. Desert is rain fed area depends on abundant rain fall to grow grain and to have fodder for the cattle. The latter is the mainstay of a Thari’s household economy. Unfortunately; the situation is grim and desperate in Tharparkar. While entering Thar desert from Nau-Kot area one feels eerie silence along the high rising sandy mounds and dunes dotted with wilted bushes and wild grass with drooping leaves. Tharis with wrinkled faces reflective of hopelessness are seen in droves herding their cattle to canal irrigated areas in Hyderabad division or elsewhere. Able bodied of families are leaving for Hyderabad and Karachi to do odd jobs in factories or find a menial job at the Bunglows of rich men to eke out a livelihood. Starvation is driving them out.
On the other hand Thari children are dying due to multiple reasons. Deaths are mainly ascribed to malnutrition, contaminated water and other different ailments. About one hundred children have died over the past couple of months. Diseases are curable but lack of medical facilities has been aggravating the situation. As per one estimate area has one Basic Health Unit at a distance of over 70 kilometres. Metalled roads to link villages of ill-fated Tharis with nearby townships are missing. To take an ailing child to a nearby health facility a poor Thari has to depend on an outmoded heavy engine operated passenger truck, called Kekrra in local parlance to trudge along the desert for hours and reach a nearby township. His frustration gets intensified after seeing the government owned dispensary having no doctor or lacking necessary equipment like incubators to support the ailing infant.
District headquarter hospital at Mithi is the only health facility where medi-care is said to be somewhat satisfactory. Though as reported in media the same hospital is also lacking sufficient number of incubators and allied equipment to cater for the growing number of child patients being admitted on daily basis. Reaching Mithi involves over three hour drive for a passenger vehicle from tehsil Nagarparkar, a long distance to cover. Travelling time from Islamkot, Chachro, Diplo, Kantio and other areas to reach Mithi is also not small. Sindh government response is appallingly unsatisfactory and the callous statement of province’s chief executive saying that parents are mainly responsible for the death of their children being uneducated and mothers carelessness enraged people. Irate Thari takes such statement as insult to injury. As a matter of fact government machinery has no time to take care of such a grim situation like at Tharparkar as it is pre-occupied with everyday new wrangle obtaining in Karachi unfolding episodes of alleged corruption and inefficiency of government.
Government has been uselessly busy in disputing the figures of death reported in media. Basic question is that why government mechanism is missing to deal with the situation and detail a mature team to oversee and rehabilitate the sick health facilities first. Also posting of medical doctors with more monetary incentives like hard area allowance etc would help the situation to improve. The drought afflicted Tharis deserve better medical treatment and governmental response succour. During previous PPP led government it was the media which had disclosed famine related death of people and massive scale destruction of the live stock. Government had to run berserk, inquiry committees were constituted to find out the actual facts and the then DCO of district Tharparkar was suspended but suspension orders had to be suspended due to the fact that officer was the son a PPP’s heavy weight. Political expediencies prevented administrative action against the DCO.
Statements of provincial bigwigs ascribing ongoing deaths to famine like situation are pooh-poohed by Tharis. The latter argue that same climatic situation prevails in the desert across the international border in India but no such death and destruction is reported there. Government machinery people opine should work hard to facilitate the populace. People in Tharparkar further argue that government is interested in the coal discovered in abundance in Tharparkar but not in spending on the amelioration of poor population. The poverty of people is seen from their physical frailty suffering from respiratory ailments and those related to waterborne diseases aggravated by malnutrition. Handful of NGOs are working in the different social sectors but their reach to every nook and corner of desert is impossible. Expectations of people from government are justified as it is the basic responsibility of administration to respond to desperate situations.
Area has scattered population and want of transportation keeps it further detached from the tehsils and district headquarters. Absence of roads infrastructure that might link villages with townships is glaring. Drought, poverty, outbreak of diseases and other allied problems are not the unheard phenomenon in Tharparkar. Government should have a well-planned programme to continually cater for the population by addressing these problems from time to time under a holistic approach. Knee-jerk reaction that also militated by bureaucratic red-tapism is not sufficient. Tharparkar would attract people from urban pockets like Karachi, Hyderabad and elsewhere from country to witness the captivating natural greenery and vegetation which used to sprout following rainfall but the same populace is probably silent now. Desert barrenness and Tharis’ helplessness should be appealing scenes for those sitting ensconced at the power corridors. The existing health facilities like one district headquarter hospital and 32 Basic Health Units should be upgraded and well-equipped to cater for the grimmer situation. Mobile dispensaries and medical camps may be arranged deep inside the desert to serve the health related needs of population. Mere visits to area do not fulfil the aspirations of the Tharis. Pragmatic approach is in fact required. Tharparkar with its vast expanse of desert known for the melodious voices of folk singers Mai Bhagi (d 1986) and Saddiq Faqeer (d 2015) is unfortunately in throes. Tharis will survive the agonizing circumstances but would the governmental conscience wake up?
