Pakistan’s overgrowing population predicament on July 28, 2020According to the recently released ‘The 2020 World Population Data Sheet’ Pakistan’s annual population growth rate is 3.6 percent which is highest in the region and if it remains growing at the same pace, it will have double the population in the coming 19.4 years. There is another threat according to which Pakistan will be […]
The freshwater trail of Tharis on July 24, 2020In district Tharparkar, around 32 kilometers in the south of Chachro city, village Chonpani Bheel consists of 100 households of poor Bheel community. The total population of the village is more than 1,200 humans and shockingly for such a large population there is not any basic human facility available in the entire village. They have […]
Daughters of a lesser god? on July 22, 2020In the early period of human civilisation, there wasn’t any contradiction in the status between men and women. Women in that period used to give birth to very few children only as they had to cover long, challenging journeys throughout their nomadic existence. Archaeologists have the opinion that those were the women who introduced phenomenal […]
Our responsibilities in the fight for violence against women on December 2, 2019Now, it has been internationally recognised/acknowledged that the prime reason behind the torture/violence against women is their socially and economically weak and degraded status. The roots of this phenomenon are deeply set in the male-dominant social system, which has existed for years and makes males the influential gender. The deep-rooted influence of the male-dominant social […]
‘Committee’ politics and Sindh on September 19, 2019The way federal government has been dealing with Sindh since election 2018 results shows that it has no plans for the capital of Sindh or for the rest of Sindh. It is only ‘committee’ politics by the centre, which reciprocally is dangerous for the central setup. As the PPP took control of the province, administratively, […]
Why Thar needs a university on June 18, 2019Administratively, Tharparker has been one of the most neglected regions in the country. Besides other problems, the provision of quality education has been a daunting challenge for successive governments. There is not a single university in the district. More than 5,000 aspiring students are unable every year to pursue higher education, after passing intermediate examinations. […]
Quilt maker Heeran Meghwar is a role model for many women on May 3, 2019I did not have the slightest idea that Hindu women having a remote rural background could have such a well established business of Sindhi quilt making, also called rally quilts. ‘My inspiration was my mother who used to make quilts by hand but I didn’t follow her course of action until I found my family […]
Is micro financing in Thar, a real reason behind locals’ suicides? on December 29, 2018When I asked Roopa a 39 year old widow, mother of three children and a client of a microfinance institute, who runs a confectionary shop in Mithi, “Why do you often take loan from microfinance banks/institutions?” She said “If a woman is a widow, her two sons are too young to go outside and earn […]
How a Kolhi woman spends her life on December 3, 2018Almost a year ago I visited Razi Kolhi’s village Sodho Thhakur near Malkani Sharif, Tando Bagho. I found the village abandoned of all the basic human amneties. For the population of around 500 people there was not a single school, dispensary/health unit, electricity, safe drinking water and road available but as it’s in the gene […]
The plight of the Indus Delta on September 10, 2018Geographically, Sindh has been an attractive, unique and multifaceted region of the country. It has many facets in its inimitable existence like rivers, deserts, salt marshes, green fields, mountains and beautiful coastlines. Sindh’s coastline stretches over 250 kilometres, between Karachi and Badin districts. River Indus also merges into the Arabian Sea here, which further flows […]