The uncertain nomads of Khairpur
While travelling on the national highway between Sukkur and Khairpur one can see makeshift settlements of nomadic families on both the sides of the highway scattered from Babarloi bypass to Thehri. These people move to Khairpur every year during the summer to make baskets and mats, used for storing dates, to earn their livelihood.
However, due to unfavourable weather conditions and a shortage of work, nomadic families are preparing to pack their belongings to leave Khairpur. During a visit to one of the makeshift settlements, The Express Tribune saw a woman in her late 40s sitting on the ground and sorting dates. She covered her face with her dupatta as this reporter approached but didn’t stop what she was doing.
The woman, who later introduced herself as Jannat Bibi after learning the purpose of this reporting, said she is from Sanghar district, where she and her family used to live in makeshift settlements like the one in Khaipur. “This year we have to move in a hurry from Sanghar because of torrential rains and urban flooding,” she said. In the new settlement near Khairpur, she said she started making baskets and mats for storing dates. She is concerned for the future there, too, because of heavy rains that recently damaged the date crop.
Bibi said this year people in the settlement haven’t made enough money to live, which is why she sorts dates that have fallen from nearby trees to have something to eat. She said she and others have also begun drying dates that have fallen from trees to sell to cattle owners; These dried dates sell for between Rs.800 and Rs.1000 per 40 kilograms. Bibi said after taking the stock of dates to the cattle owners for sale, the men from the settlement will buy groceries with whatever they earn.
Bibi’s husband, Mohammad Zaman Brohi said women from the settlement are experts and making baskets and mats, while men either work in the date orchards or in the city as labourers. “Some of our men are also trained to climb date trees and cut the branches with bunch of dates,” he said. “But this year the date orchard owners have sustained huge loss[es] due to torrential rains coupled with strong winds.” He said finding large amounts of fallen dates has helped them survive, since they can both eat and sell these fruit.
He said he and his family keep moving from one place to another in search of a livelihood, which is what their lifestyle is about. Another woman, Naz Bibi, said she belonged to the Brohi tribe from Shaheed Benazeer Abad, but doesn’t have a home in any part of the province. First thinking this reporter was an official, she requested help from the government. Later, she explained how she and others in the settlement – who are homeless people with no permanent source of income -- move from one place to another to earn for their families. While she spoke, her youngest son slept on a makeshift bed under a mosquito net.
“Now we are planning to move to district Shikarpur, where we can find work in the paddy fields and will live there till the harvesting season of paddy is over,” she said. After that, Bibi said she and her family will move to Larkana to work in the guava orchards to and prepare baskets. “In this way our life cycle is going on and on,” she said. “We are born as nomads and will die as nomads.”
In a nearby hut, another woman, Mai Zulekha who overheard the conversation complained that many people visit the settlement, ask questions, and leave but don’t provide any help. She said it seems like people only visit these settlements to see how people are surviving with a lack of facilities and without proper food and water.
She argues the wrath of mother nature and the inhumane attitude of the government has made people in the settlement much stronger to brave the hardships they have faced. She said two years ago, three of the men from her community were crushed to death by a vehicle while sleeping on the roadside but no one from the government or civil society came to their rescue. On the contrary, she said, the police blamed the incident on the men who had died, inquiring about why they had fallen asleep on the roadside.
Wiping her misty eyes with her dupatta, she said she sometimes people from her community feel like they are aliens that have come from another planet. Upon hearing this, a passerby, a young man, agreed and walked away laughing.
Nadir Ali Brohi, an elder of the community, said in the past few years, people from the settlement have had good earnings from working in the date orchards. But this year, he said heavy rains and strong winds have caused extensive damage to the date crops, which he worries will create further trouble for them. Brohi said that this years has been the heaviest rain since the torrential rains of 2012.
Brohi said that many people are ready to move to Shikarpur district where they hope to find work in the paddy fields. “This is our routine to keep moving from one place to another and work and earn,” he said adding that men and women from the community have become experts at picking up whatever work is available. “Even our children can work in the paddy fields, picking cotton and cutting sugarcane.”
Date orchard owner Haji Abdul Jalil Memon said he was expecting to turn a good profit this year harvesting his 800 date trees, but heavy rains and strong winds destroyed everything. As a result, he was forced to dry dates to make a profit. He said this year the price of dates will go up because the entire crop is destroyed.
“The owners who have stored the dates last year will make money by selling the fruit for high price,” he said. Memon said orchard owners take precautionary measures to save their cops but it is very costly to cover all bunches of dates with polythene sheets, which also requires double the amount of labor. He said whatever is left after making dry dates from the raw dates has gone to waste because once dates are soaked in water they start to decompose immediately. At that point, they are not even fit for consumption for cattle, let alone humans.
Abdul Ghafoor Memon, another farmer who owns around 500 date trees, said he had a similar experience this year. He said he had covered almost all of the bunches of dates in his orchard with polythene sheets, but the sheets were ripped apart by strong winds and torrential rains. “In a sense, my loss is doubled -- one due to damage of the crop and the other ripping of the polythene sheets, which itself is a laborious work,” he said.
Sarfaraz Memon is a freelance writer. All information and facts provided are the sole responsibility of the writer.