Personal testimonies and case histories

Country: PAKISTAN
Name: Lalan
Age: 35
Home: Village of Bitra, Thar District

Here is a case of one widow named Lalan aged 35, with five dependent children. She has no land and depends for a livelihood on doing manual work for other families in her village Bitra. She normally earns her living to sustain herself and children by doing embroidery work, selling fire wood and mud plastering of neighbours' houses. In normal times she earns just enough to feed herself and children food which is not nutritious. She is sometimes paid in cash and sometimes in kind like wheat flour for making bread. In the current drought she has lost her two goats, which was her only asset, due to non-availability of fodder. None of the five children (3 girls, 2 boys) go to school as she cannot afford the cost of schooling.

As the rainfall did not occur last year, there is a drought in Thar. 80% of the households have lost all means of livelihood and more than 50% have migrated to canal irrigated areas out of Thar in search of food and fodder.

Lalan did not migrate to canal irrigated areas as she saw no prospects of earning and feeding her children there. She is now entirely at the mercy of the village people who help her out sometimes with wheat flour to make bread for her five dependent children. She produces embroidery work but no one is ready to buy due to shortage of money. "The middle man would come around and buy it from me at the rate which is not even 1/4 the normal day rate. I have no option but to sell as I want to buy food items for my hungry children", says Lalan.The children go out in the morning and cut fire wood which they sell in town. They are paid less than half the normal rate as people know that they are in dire need of money for food. They are exploited by every one due to the prevailing drought situation. "Sometime when we have no income from craft and fire wood we resort to begging in the village. Sometimes we are lucky to get some wheat flour which provides us with one meal. Many times my children and myself sleep without taking any meal", say Lalan. Lalan further said that they are looking forward to harvesting wild fruits and vegetables (fodder tree pods) which will be ready in two to three months time. "We will use these to satisfy our hunger", says Lalan.

The Participatory Village Development Programme (PVDP) in collaboration with Church World Service (CWS) is trying to find outlets for Thari craft so that persons like Lalan can earn a decent living. "We are trying to bring change in the pattern, design and quality of Thari craft so that the market will buy it at a reasonable price. In the process, we would like to reduce the role of middle men who normally exploit the craft workers by paying them unfair wages for their hard labour", says Mr. Dominic Stephen, President of PVDP.

PVDP and its partners are looking at ways and means to help the drought affected people in Thar. For short term intervention food items are needed badly for the people who have not migrated. There is also an immediate need of fodder for the livestock. For medium term intervention, there is a need to build their assets and rehabilitate their water systems which are badly affected in drought years. Rain water harvesting tanks are needed to store sweet rain water. This is important as 80% of the deep water wells in PVDP have brackish water which is harmful for health. The community water wells need to be repaired. After they have been in use for a long time (some over 50 years) they badly need repairs and renovation with community support. The community water ponds are also in bad shape and need to be de-silted enabling more rainwater storage for livestock use. In drought time the livestock is in danger of dying due to fodder and water shortages. They need to be managed well and vaccinated at the appropriate times to save the farmers from suffering huge losses.

Dominic Stephen
President,
Participatory Village Development Programme(PVDP) and Future in Our Hands Pakistan
Thar Region, Sindh, Pakistan.
30th January 2003.