Azra Talat Sayeed APWLD Programme and Management Committee

I have just come back from the earthquake affected areas in Kashmir and NWFP (North Western Frontier Province). A group of women from Roots for Equity had gone to evaluate the impact of the earthquake on women in particular, and to offer solidarity from our side.

I can say that the experience has been one of the most difficult ones both personally and professionally. The condition of women in the tent villages was particularly depressing, not only as a result of the earthquake but the quality of life in the tents. Women’s emotional state even in their own environment was equally distressing.

The high-handedness of the state, the omnipresence of the army, the disgusting patriarchal practices at the household, community and state level were glaringly obvious. One of the most outrageous policies being implemented has been the arbitrary closing of the tent villages by March 31st. There is no doubt that the tent villages should not be allowed to foster, however, it was thoughtless and cruel setting the deadline for closure of the tent villages at this time of the year. Nearly all of March it has been raining and it was very cold. The rain had made the tent villages a quagmire of mud, a real nightmare for mothers having young children. We found one mother having tied her child to the bed to save him from getting muddy and wet. It is in these conditions that inhabitants of the tent villages were being asked to evacuate pronto. The rain has caused horrendous landslides and many of the roads are blocked, or get blocked momentarily. Transporters are charging an arm and a leg to get people to their villages from the tent cities. The army was found to be ordering truck drivers to take people from the tent villages to their points of destination. However, truck drivers were dumping people in the middle of the way, leaving them high and dry on the roadside. In many cases, there were no roads right up to the village; hence people had to trek through treacherous mountainous paths, in freezing rain, carrying not only their tents and belongings but also the weak and frail members of their family.

According to the UN, pregnant women, women with young infants, widows, as well as the landless are being termed as vulnerable. As such, these groups were not to be evacuated according to the deadline. However, we found that many of them had been given their marching orders. Everybody had to evacuate by the last week of March. In some camps, there were orders that no trace of the tent village should be found by March 31st. Women were complaining bitterly of the harsh treatment by the Army jawans. In one tent village, women even mentioned that they were escorted by army personnel forced to clean the toilets.

The human rights violations are many and multiplied due to the extremely patriarchal culture of our society. One woman was found to have given birth on the wayside, on route to the camp. Her umbilical cord had been cut by a stone. It is a wonder that she did not succumb to tetanus. She now lives alone in a tent with her underweight baby. Her husband had left her just before the Earthquake: the woman’s brother-in-law had made sexual advances to her, and on her not obliging him, made allegations against her to her husband. Both of them had beaten her up and then left her to her devices. In nearly all camps, women were giving birth in their tents without medical assistance. Their husbands or other male members were not allowing them to seek medical aid. According to a Cuban doctor in one of the camps, women were only brought to them when their condition had deteriorated and become serious. However, in many cases there were no female doctors on call in many of the camps. We found one woman had given birth (in her tent without medical help) to a baby girl with crooked legs and a broken arm, most probably, as a result of the physical stress the woman had gone through during the earthquake. A male doctor on site had no idea of the infant’s condition. The father had taken the child to public medical facility in town, however, had not received any medical advice.

The situation of women in their homes was equally heartwrenching. A woman widowed 17 year ago, having raised three girls 12 years and downwards, had recently married off two of them. Both of them died in the earthquake, one with her infantson, and the other leaving a 6 month old girl. The grandmother is now taking care of the child. Although, both of the husbands have received the compensation in the amount of Rs. 100,000 (USD 1,694) there is nothing for the mother except endless tears. Another woman, widowed by the earthquake, has three sons to raise (3, 5 and 6 years old). She is illiterate and not venturing out in search of jobs and is depending on her relatives to provide her with her quota of wheat flour. The community committee members that have been created for distribution of aid are all males, and class dynamics are being played out to weaken the weak and strengthen the powerful. A visit to the various tents in the community revealed that she had the smallest of all tents made available in the community, and the least stock of flour. She is depending on her relatives to cash her checks for her; one can only hope that she would not be fleeced further. It is being reported that in some areas of Sarhad, the Khans (local lords) have been accumulating house compensation checks of Rs. 25,000 (USD 423). The feudal lords are hand in hand to ensure that the money earmarked for the common people does not reach them but goes into their already rich coffers.

There are thousands of stories, each heart-breaking, revealing the tremendous tragedy our sisters and brothers have gone through in the aftermath of the earthquake. There is an immense need for many women and women’s groups to reach out to our sisters in need. Their trauma is so deep that even a simple visit offering no more than condolence helps these women get through another day. This is indeed a time when the women’s and other movements need to mobilise themselves to reach out, at individual as well as collective level, to our thousands of sisters and other survivors of the earthquake in Pakistan. We need to be there, now.

Roots for Equity have been raising funds and providing relief assistance to the earthquake survivors, particularly women, in Kashmir. But there are still thousands of sisters who we have not been able to help. Please, help them by sending donations to:

Account name: Roots for Equity

Bank name: Bank AL Habib Limited Via Citibank NA, New York, USA (CITIUS33)

Bank branch: I.L Chundriger Road, Karachi

Further credit to Branch Zamazma(1005)

Swift code: BAHLPKKA

Account number: 419300194754

For further information contact: Azra Talat Sayeed at roots@super.net.pk