Poverty, malnutrition remain biggest challenges for freed peasants

HYDERABAD: Jethanand Kolhi, a farmer and community elder, residing in a newly established agriculture labour township known as Ganga Ram Colony, still recalls the brutalities he and his family faced at the hand of tyrants in the agricultural fields in district Mirpurkhas. The locality is situated in Union Council Makhan Samoo, near a highway linking Mirpurkhas city and Mirwah town, the busiest route.

Jethanand worked as a bonded labourer about 12-13 years ago. There were hundreds of people who toiled the fields with him. They were all under debt of the landlord.

Jethanand narrates his haunting tales to anyone who visits him at the colony. He still has wound marks on his legs, arms, and back to prove the horrific treatment he received at the hands of the henchmen of the owner of that agricultural field he worked on as a bonded labourer.

“We were forced to work day and night under chains tied with heavy stones. We cannot forget those horrible scenes. They used to beat our children and abuse our women in front of us,” he describes, as tears flow down his eyes.

When his family was freed, they purchased a piece of land jointly. It cost them Rs135,000 in 2009. They built their own shelter on it, and started a new life.

Initially, only 88 families were settled in Ganga Ram Colony. But now there are more than 300 families, belonging to the same clan.

Since then, the community has decided that not a single family will go to work as share croppers with any landlord, avoiding the risk of getting trapped as bonded labour. It was a common practice in the agricultural fields and brick kilns until hardly a decade ago.

The colony is named after a daring activist Ganga Ram, the only peasant worker who passed matriculation. He too had faced humiliation at the hands of such cruel people during his work, and saw his entire community, his parents and relatives, working under pressure of the debt-trap.

The community people recall that after shifting to this colony they faced devastating floods in 2011, which caused destruction all around, making them more vulnerable. But they did not give up and stood bravely to help each other.

Perhaps, this is only locality where people, both men and women, work as daily wager and do not violate the decision to not work as sharecropper at any landlords lands. Some young persons have shifted hands to drive rickshaws instead of continuing their traditional work.

During the devastating 2011 flood, several development organisations extended helping hands to install hand pumps, build sanitation facilities, and washing pads. The organisations encouraged the community to build pathways. They have maintained these facilities.

Harji Kolhi, the elder son of Jethanand said gone were the days and now all the families have enrolled their children in school with the hope of them changing their destinies.

Visibly, these people seem happy and free, but they still feel they needed to heal. The children and their mothers do not have enough food because of poverty and low wages. They have to work to overcome food insecurity, diseases, and extreme poverty.

Shugna Kolhi wife of Tulsi has received five goats and 10 poultry birds free of cost to feed her children, who face malnutrition, stunting, and were underweight. She was among five women in this locality, who received these small animals and poultry birds to feed their children.

Radha Kolhi, another beneficiary woman has seven children, including four twins. Originally, she belonged to Sanghar district. But after facing cruelty in the agriculture fields, she also got rid of her debt by selling all her assets.

Now her family too lives in Ganga Ram Colony.

The beneficiary women give credit to the Sindh Rural Partners Organisation (SRPO), which has taken the initiative in collaboration with Sindh government to implement Accelerated Action Plan (AAP-Livestock sector) for reduction of stunting and malnutrition in the province.

Zaida Detho, leading SRPO, said that despite having 14 million acres under crop cultivation, over 70 percent of households, mostly children in Sindh were food insecure. The organisation, in collaboration with provincial government has a target to benefit 26,566 families through providing livestock and backyard poultry in different districts.

“We have collaboration with frontline health workers, nutrition specialists, communities, area legislators and livestock department officials to work together to address the issue of stunting-malnutrition among children, which at this moment is considered urgent to be resolved,” Detho said.

Livestock, specially goats and backyard poultry would contribute little to have assets of poor households, widowed women with children, and deprived landless people, she said.

She believes that the goal of AAP was to reduce stunting from 48 percent to 30 percent in the first five years (by 2021) and 15 percent by 2026 in Sindh by increasing and expanding coverage of multi-sectoral interventions, that were known to reduce stunting in the first five years of a child’s life.

Nevertheless, malnutrition remains a crucial issue for Sindh that contributes significantly to the cycle of poverty. Starting with malnourished mothers, who give birth to malnourished children, the problem shadows people throughout their life—leading to more health problems throughout their lifetime, lower economic productivity, and lower lifetime earnings.

Food insecurity, limited or uncertain availability of or access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods throughout the year, were associated with malnutrition as a key underlying determinant of overall food intake in the household, although often less well associated with the intake of food by women and children.

The people, especially farmers community in Sindh have been facing challenges of malnutrition. The prevalence of underweight children is 40.5 percent, while wasting prevalence is 17.5 percent. These figures have not changed significantly in the past decade, reports suggest.

The people in this labour township Gaga Ram Colony despite hardships look optimistic to resolve all the problems with unity.

Being hard workers and reliable, area people give their animals to these families to feed the same on 50 percent share basis. For this, the community women take care of these animals and earn enough through this kind of mutual understanding. This additional support to some poor families was inspiring them to have valuable assets.

However, the people still need further action to provide food resources to avoid stunting malnutrition among their children.