anti-caste

AGRICULTURAL LABORERS IN FLOOD-RAVAGED PAKISTAN: BETWEEN A NATURAL DISASTER AND A SOCIAL ONE

Pakistan One Year After the Floods by Christian Parenti (The Nation)

“Why would desperately poor flood victims fight to stay in a dust-choked tent camp on the outskirts of a violent mega-city rather than go back to their homes? [...]

“‘We don’t want to go back because the landlord will double our debt,’ says Hassan Khoso. ‘We want the government to give us land.’ He says that landlords have been coming to the camp urging the haris to return. Khoso and others say that is part of what keeps them close to the city. Along with work, there is access to hospitals and the promise—at least the promise—of education for their children.

“As at the camp on the western edge of Karachi, these people have formed a camp committee. To make their demands heard they marched to the local press club and held a sit-in. And how are such calls for reform and development being met by officials? Dead silence. [...]

“At the camp on the outskirts of Karachi one landlord from Baluchistan came with five armed guards, threatening to take away several brothers from a family named Bux. All the brothers were in debt to the landlord; he threatened to lock them in his private jail if they did not return and start working. But the camp rallied and faced him down.

“All through the Indus flood zone I heard similar stories—landless haris in urban camps preferring to become day laborers rather than return to debt peonage in the districts and landlords complaining that relief aid was keeping the haris away from their obligations. Standing on an earthen levee along a canal in the village of Arazi in the Dadu district of northern Sindh, a stout landlord named Kahari Bhutto exclaimed, ‘The farmworkers—their homes were wiped out, and they are gone. I don’t know where they are. Landowners themselves are having to do the work!’”

See also anti-caste on the 2010 floods in Pakistan and their aftermath

UNTOUCHABLE HINDUS IN PAKISTAN TURNED AWAY FROM AID IN AFTERMATH OF FLOODS

Caste away: Scheduled caste Hindus in Sindh are facing floods as well as discrimination (The News International (Pakistan), September 19, 2010)

“According to a report, scheduled caste Hindus were even denied shelter and food at a Dharmshala in Larkana where local management had made arrangements for 500 upper caste Hindus displaced due to floods from upper Sindh and Balochistan.

“Nisar Khokhar, a BBC correspondent from Larkana, says that arrangements at Dharmshala were very impressive, but unfortunately there was no place for scheduled castes. ‘Milk and other food items were available in huge quantity, but the entry of scheduled caste Hindus inside Dharmshala was banned,’ he tells TNS.

“He says that he was impressed by the efforts of local Hindu Panchayat, which did not take money from the government and was managing flood relief facility inside the Dharmshala on self-help basis. But, unfortunately, those who were in the most need were denied access to the facility just because they belonged to lower caste.

“The attitude of government officials is no different. In Makli, Prithvi Raj and other scheduled castes are denied registration as displaced persons. This registration will entitle them for government aid in cash and kind. The government had already started distribution of cash (Rs20,000) through “Watan” card scheme.

“‘DCO office in Thatta has refused our registration and told us to go to Hyderabad because our NIC is from Hyderabad,’ complains Pirthvi Raj. ‘Yes, we have NIC from Hyderabad, but when flood came we were settled in Thatta District,’ he argues.

“The official plea that they should go and register themselves in Hyderabad will deny these poor people compensation because Hyderabad is not included in the list of affected districts.

““We have received nothing, be it ration or cooked food,’ says Sono Bagri at Sabzi Mandi Camp in Hyderabad city. ‘When we try to reach them, we are told to go away because we are “Bagri” schedule caste.’

“An NGO activist tells TNS she has been asked by her boss not to focus on Bagris because they are not affectees, but beggars. Even provincial ministers are on record saying that Bagris and other schedule castes are beggars and have gathered in and around camps to receive aid.”

IN CONTEXT OF CAPITALISM/IMPERIALISM, FLOODS POSE MAJOR SOCIAL CRISIS IN PAKISTAN

Floods Could Have Lasting Impact for Pakistan (New York Times)

“The floods have submerged about 17 million acres of Pakistan’s most fertile croplands, in a nation where farming is an economic mainstay. The waters have also killed more than 200,000 head of livestock, and washed away large quantities of stored commodities that feed millions throughout the year.

“Relief workers warned that if farmers missed the deadline to reseed in the fall planting season, the nation could face long-term shortages. [...]

“The loss of even nonfood crops, like cotton for the nation’s textile industry, could undercut the nation’s ability to recover.

“With 20 percent of cotton washed away, Pakistan’s famed textile industry, which accounts for 60 percent of the country’s exports, is certain to stagger. As a result, textile plants are likely to make large-scale layoffs. Plants that do manage to purchase cotton will face electricity shortages, as more than seven major power stations have been demolished.”

See also:

Pakistan flooding submerges new areas (CBC, August 21, 2010):

“According to [a spokesman for the Canadian Red Cross], six million people are already homeless, and there are upwards of 20 million people whose lives have been impacted.

“The floods began in the northwest, hitting the Swat Valley and areas close to the main city of Peshawar, before moving down the country by way of the River Indus, devastating millions of hectares of crops in the country’s ‘breadbasket’ in Punjab and the Sindh.

“About one-fifth of the country–a chunk of land about the size of Italy–has been affected.”

And see:

Pakistan Flood Sets Back Infrastructure by Years (New York Times, August 26, 2010)

And see on anti-caste:

NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF PAKISTAN (June 2009)

ON CASTE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST SURVIVORS OF THE SOUTH ASIAN TSUNAMI (January 15, 2005)