A day before Eid, as you see everyone rushing towards markets for Eid shopping, some people cleaning their cars and houses, camel herders thronging Quetta is a typical Eid sight. Having spent my childhood there, I have fond memories of being so excited to see them as camel rides was the only activity on which we would spend all our Eidi collections. “Chacha, bhagao”, all the kids would tell the camel herder to make the camel run faster. Recently, on a trip to Quetta I met a few camel herders near my house. I was curious to know who those people were. Where do they come from and why? Don’t they want to spend Eid with their families?
“We live in the Akhtar Kot area of the Sibbi district of Balochistan and belong to the Baloch Jamali tribe,” replies Khalifa Khan. If you travel by road, Sibbi is almost a three-hour drive from Quetta, and it takes almost four days to arrive in Quetta on foot or on camels. “These are not our camels, we come all the way for our employer and work on daily wages for him,” he says. “Our employer is the one who owns all these camels, and once we have collected the money for each day, we call his son, who lives in Quetta, to take the money from us.” Khan was the only one in that group who could speak better Urdu. “Whatever we earn at the end of the day, we hand it over to our employer. For each camel, we only get Rs 200 rupees per day, and we have no other source of income,” says Khan.
The interesting part is the smiling faces of all these men who bring so much happiness to children after just earning Rs 200 every day. It made me think that there are millions of people who earn thousands of rupees every month, but they still don’t seem happy and complain about low incomes and heavy expenses. “We do not have any other skill, all we can do is graze these camels, feed them and take them for Eid earnings. None of us is qualified or skilled to do anything else,” says Khan.
“This year we were not allowed to go inside the check post area (a Hazara majority area) due to security reasons, so we have rented a few of our camels for the Eid mela (fair). After maghrib prayer, Hazara men will come and return our camels to us,” says Hazaar Khan who also works in Mariabad, a Hazara populated area, as a labourer. He has connections with the Hazara community and is their source to rent them camels at Rs 6,000 per day for each animal. How will the Hazara men earn when the charges sound rather high? “They earn a lot,” he says. “In the city areas, people give Rs 10 to 20 per ride, but the Hazaras charge Rs 50 to 100 per round. The Shia population on the Alamdar Road and Mariabad do not go outside the Frontier Corp Security check posts [created after the 2013 Alamdar road blast] so they have the advantage of more people gathering at the same mela. If we earn Rs 6,000 in the city, the Hazaras earn around Rs 20,000 per day.”
“We have been coming to Quetta on Eid days for over a decade now. Earlier, we didn’t know this about Quetta, but now we have heard that there are a lot of opportunities in the Turbat district of Balochistan. If you are skilled, you can make baskets, prayer mats and other stuff from date and palm trees, but we haven’t gone there as its too far from Akhtar Kot,” says Ghulam Haider.
Talking to the herders, I craved for a cup of tea and wondered how they managed their food and tea. “God gives from His sources,” replies Khan, but no tea or biscuits appeared, much to my dismay!
Along with older camel herders, there were also children and young fellows, and I could not keep myself from asking if they had any plans or opportunities for education. “I have enrolled my two children in school; after a long time, someone from our community is studying,” says Hazaar Khan. “My younger brother has also studied a bit. My older son is in class sixth and the younger one is in class four,” says Hazaar who probably thought of educating his children because he works as a labourer in the city.
Some camel herders travel in Balochistan throughout the year, and they eat and feed their camels whatever they may find during their journeys. Sometimes it takes them a year to return to their village, and in that time, a baby camel turns a year old. “Even if you travel with camels the whole year, you have to feed them,” Haider explains. “We feed them whatever our employer provides, and in the end, he is the one who makes money on these camels. For instance, if you earn and buy yourself a touch mobile, you will never gift it to us because it is your money. No one will give us anything, neither government nor our employer; only God provides us, and that is enough for us,” says Haider.
Talking to these camel herders was enlightening, but I didn’t want them to feel disheartened with my questions. Most herders will never be able to buy their own camels from their savings as with their meager daily wages, they can barely support their families. This is how the next generation will continue to work. Having said that, they smiled as I took pictures. Maybe less worries and fewer burdens keep them going towards their daily targets. The sound of “Chacha, bhagao” will always remain a part of the Eid festivities as the poor will keep coming for their earnings, and the circle will continue for the next generations of festival creators and attendees.
Mujtaba Javaid is a freelance writer. All information and facts provided are the sole responsibility of the writer.