The Thar crime

Life in Thar is under threat; and the Sindh government’s laid-back attitude to the deaths in the desert region is only exposing it’s apathy towards it’s own people. After seven more children died on Saturday, the total number of children who have died in Thar in January has gone up to an astonishing 101. Over a 100 children have been admitted to hospitals in the region where they are being provided with whatever little medical assistance is available to the residents of Thar. The region has been facing a drought for the last three years which has made the lives of the already poverty-stricken residents of the region even worse. The deaths are being caused due to malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia – all three of which are easily avoidable if the right arrangements are made. Two weeks ago, under the instructions of PPP Co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto the Sindh government constituted a separate committee to tackle the situation in Thar on an emergency basis. Apart from announcing the doubling of the health budget for the region to a still paltry Rs28 million, a measure that has little meaning if the right health supplies do not reach on time, there has been little movement on the ground.

The Sindh government has – like last year – either tried to shift the blame or preferred silence. Only last week, the Sindh Assembly speaker decided that the best way to deal with the matter was not to talk about it after rejecting a MQM motion to discuss the Thar deaths. The Sindh government insists it is not to be blamed for the plight of the Tharis. Who do the people of Thar turn to then? If the Sindh government is not to blame, then who is responsible for the three years of catastrophe that the people of Thar have undergone? For three years now, representatives of the provincial government have tried to dispel the seriousness of the situation by attempting to claim that deaths in the region were on par with the national average. Reports of the deaths on Saturday suggest that no doctors were available when four of the seven deceased children were brought to hospital. If true, then this is criminal neglect pure and simple. Had a health emergency been declared three years ago, the health crisis could have been controlled or averted. Perhaps, the only way to make the Sindh government move on the issue is to shame them into action.