Daily Times

Tharparkar in Sindh is in the news mostly for all the wrong reasons. We get to know that children are dying of hunger or malnutrition, there is a drought-like condition most of the time, schools are closed, and hospitals are not functioning in full capacity. On the other side, the PPP government in the province claims that the situation isn’t that serious, claiming that the news items concerning Thar are largely biased, the number of children dying there is highly exaggerated, and that the basic facilities are as good as in other districts of Pakistan. Presently, the Health Department has posted a lot of doctors in every part of Thar with an excellent salary package.

Malnutrition is certainly there on which the government and some non-government organisations (NGOs) are already working on. The main cause of death among children is two-fold. Firstly, early marriages of teenage girls who are barely able to conceive a child. Secondly, owing to malnutrition among child-bearing women, the embryo does not receive the required nutrients during the first eight weeks of pregnancy.

When the embryo becomes a foetus in the ninth week of gestation, it is already weak and unable to develop in a healthy manner.The concept of anti-natal care is nothing in these poor areas; they prefer to deliver the baby by local dias.

This has a lot to do with poverty and lack of livelihood opportunities. Previously, the number of infants dying was much higher because of the distances and a lack of infrastructure. Now the roads in the areahave been upgraded. The credit goes to the efforts by the Government of Sindh during the last ten years.

Since the government is also the majority shareholder in the Thar Coal Mining Project, the requirements of the project have also prompted to fulfil its responsibilities. As for NGOs,the Thar Foundation is at the forefront of transformation. As a new player in the field, it has new blood in its veins that hired locally educated youth to contribute to the development of the region. They have established a partnership with Indus Hospital, Karachi, to provide free healthcare to underprivileged people of Thar. They are already on the way to make Islamkot a model taluka (tehsil) for health facilities, which can be followed by other districts. For example, their Marvi Mother and Child Clinic has been operational since 2015, and one could see local women and children get the best possible primary healthcare. This is the hallmark of Indus Hospital, Karachi.

Islamkot is also going to be the location of a 250-bed hospital already under development for its first phase.

The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and the United Nations World Food Programme, Pakistan (UNWFP) have launched an initiative to alleviate food insecurity

Though malnutrition was visible on their faces and poverty reflected in the nearby villages where they come from,the Thar Foundation claims that the multimillion-dollar Thar Coal Project employs almost 75 percent of its staff and workers from the area. Still, a major challenge is creating food security and eliminating, or at least, reducing malnutrition.

The Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and the United Nations World Food Programme, Pakistan (UNWFP) have launched an initiative to alleviate food insecurity and associated vulnerabilities of 428,400 drought victims in Tharparkar district.

As an immediate food consumption support, UNWFP will supplement BISP’s unconditional cash transfers with a humanitarian top-up of PKR 1,000 each for eligible households. A total of 63,000 poorest of the poor families in Tharparkar will receive a humanitarian top-up alongside BISP’s UCT programmer’s routine monthly cash-transfer of PKR1,650.Thishighly valued partnership is to address the growing issue of stunted growth and malnutrition in Pakistan, and emphasise the initiative’s alignment with thefederal government’s priority list.

The people of Tharparkardepend on agriculture, livestock and daily wages. An estimated 30 to 40 percent is dependent on agriculture and livestock respectively. However,agricultural activity is largely dependent on monsoon rainfall.

The Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants of water are not properly working and more than 50 percent are out of orderon which the local authorities are working on.

The Government of Sindh has also decided to give 50-kilo wheat to local families every month.

The relief has been launched by the directive of Chief Minister Sindh and 208,247 families of Thar would be provided with such a benefit.

As this whole district was won by the PPP in the 2018 General Elections with the exception of one provincial seat, their members must visit frequently and also assist in providing financial assistance to the needy. Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) program should be shifted to Thar with efforts utilised for all families residing in remote parts. Special attention must be given towards neonatal care with necessary medicine and vaccination services be provided by the provincial government. Counselling may be an added valuefor the locals to refrain from early marriages.

The writer is a retired officer of the Health Department, Government of Sindh

Published in Daily Times, March 2^nd 2019.