I sincerely hope relevant authorities look into this, take appropriate measures to save valuable lives
KARACHI: Every day, in almost every newspaper, there is news about children dying in Thar. The counts vary from two to four children every day. On a few days, they even go up to nine or 11 children. Newspapers seem to be giving little importance to this issue and about the policies being implemented or actions being taken by the government to resolve it. A recent story on the Thar famine in a leading newspaper was enough to leave anyone who read it shaken. Yet no remedial steps are being taken. We have lost innocent lives in Thar and nobody seems to care.
I fail to understand how humanity works. Is losing two lives every day not worth the attention of our policymakers? Are deaths due to natural disasters acceptable? Is the number of lives lost the only criterion for terming an event a tragedy? Let us not forget that every life matters. Let us not wait for drastic and unfortunate events to shake us into action. Let us not lose lives which can be saved by taking much-needed measures. Let us not forget that what is a number to us in the newspaper is an end to the dreams and hopes and a future for families of the affected. Let us not forget that every life that is not saved is a life taken by those who can and should do something about the situation, but are not. I sincerely hope the relevant authorities look into this and take appropriate measures to save valuable lives, which are still amongst us.
Mariya Dada
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2014.
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