KARACHI:
President Asif Ali Zardari has demanded a report from the Sindh government into news reports that scheduled caste Hindus (Dalits) affected by floods were being denied humanitarian assistance.
“The president said that discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or religion, in extending rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations is unacceptable,” Presidential Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar quoted the president as saying.
The president, he said, ordered that immediate relief be provided to all marooned and stranded people, including those from minority groups and asked the Sindh chief minister to solve the problem. “The havoc caused by floods is a humanitarian disaster which calls for a response beyond partisan or religious considerations,” the president said.
Media outlets have reported that organisations conducting relief efforts, and not just the religious ones, have been discriminating against the scheduled castes, according to Hindu community chiefs. Dalits have not only been denied help but have also not been allowed to enter relief camps for being ‘untouchables’.
There are an estimated two million Dalits living in Pakistan today and Sindh’s scheduled castes, including the Kohlis, Menghwars, Bheels and Oads, are predominantly employed as farmers in Badin district. These Hindu farmers usually take loans from landlords and tend to the land with their families all year round to pay back. As such, they are most vulnerable to the devastating rains and ensuing floods.
Similar reports had appeared last year during the floods as well, mostly focusing on discrimination against Ahmadis in Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2011.
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For the past few weeks, strange news regarding a new government has been circulating in the media and some television anchors are even trying to give a timeline for the event Pakistan is certainly going through a tough time with a massive rehabilitation and reconstruction phase underway. Our media, instead of focusing on the flood victims, has shifted its attention to the government’s weaknesses and is continuously hinting at an ‘imminent’ change in the government. This is not how a responsible media acts. The media is one of the major stakeholders in the country and is considered an important pillar of society. In order to ensure political stability in the country, our media should focus on more important things instead of predicting a change in the government.