Indus Watch
Greed for land leads to posthumous oppression of 17-year-old girl
Hindu communities belonging to scheduled castes, who live near Hala New in district Matiari, now fear for their lives, after some members of the Oad community were threatened by clerics to exhume the body of a minor girl, who was buried nine months ago in the historical Khudabad Graveyard
By Jan Khaskheli
Seventeen-year old Shahmira Oad, the daughter of Bachayo Oad, a resident of Hala, died on April 28, 2009, and was buried at the Khudabad graveyard, three kilometres southwest of New Hala town. According to local activists, Shahmira's relatives buried her there only after receiving permission from the locals, including the caretaker of the graveyard, prior to the funeral process.

Respect, hope, a roof over their heads
Hafeez Tunio reports on the beneficiaries of the SRSO's Union Council-Based Poverty Reduction Programme. The project, which is run in two districts of Sindh, has empowered many women by making them the sole beneficiaries of grants
Forty-five-year-old Rashida Khoso, and her family, residents of Wazir Khoso Goth in district Kashmore, used to have no option but to seek shelter in the houses of their neighbors whenever rain lashed the area. Rashida had no idea that the day will come when she will also be able to construct a proper house and her family's miseries will end.

His expressions stern, his determination sheer, his fists tough, and his looks deadly, four-year-old Muzammil turns up at the boxing club in his neighbourhood in Lyari every evening to exercise and learn the techniques of the game.

Muzammil aspires to emulate his eldest brother, Dur Muhammad, and become an international boxer; whether or not his dreams are realised, depends on institutional factors beyond the control of ordinary citizens. "Competitions such as these are for winning the hearts of the people, and letting them feel important about what they do, said Nawab Baloch, a boxing coach in his 60s who has been training young pugilists for over 35 years. "This can only be made possible if the government starts conducting talent hunt on the streets of Lyari, because real boxers are born on the streets, and not in the sitting rooms of any organisation," Baloch asserted.

The veteran coach's views are rooted in history: Lyari has produced a number of boxers who brought acclaim and respect for Pakistan. Mehrullah, the Busan Asian Games gold medallist, Dur Muhammad and Shoaib Rasheed, the SAF Games champions, Ali Muhammad, the best boxer at the 2005 Asian junior championship, and the Asian cadet championship's best boxer, Mohammad Nisar, are just a few noteworthy pugilists produced in Lyari.

Despite this illustrious history, residents of Lyari are given barely any support or formal training and facilities by the government, another coach Murad Bux told Kolachi. "In order to reach the top tier in boxing, one needs to practice with full attention and keep their body physically fit and free of other stresses," Bux said. "Boxing is a very strenuous sport, and our children grow up seeing boxers and naturally develop a love and ability for the sport," he said, but added that taking care of the boxer's body is critical. "This requirement cannot be fulfilled if one is working and has other responsibilities. The pugilists have to fight their way up, and it is not possible to box properly if one has to earn a living for his family. This is the reason why many a great talent in Lyari dies at a very young age, under the load of responsibilities and social needs," Bux told Kolachi.

Bux's students have landed in Pakistan Rangers Boxing Club and have even participated in a number of events. Yet Bux, who has been training enthusiasts to become boxers since the past 20 years, has never been supported by the government to encourage the growth of the game in Lyari.

Karachi South Boxing Association (KSBA), Secretary General, Asghar Muhammad Baloch meanwhile asserted that in Lyari, boxing is not seen as merely a sport, but complete lifestyles are built around healthy routines to ensure that one is completely prepared. "Our youth doesn't indulge in petty habits, such as eating Paan, beetle nut, smoking, drugs or even caffeinated drinks, such as tea or coffee, which are said to affect the stamina of a player," said Asghar Baloch.

While the KSBA official claimed that about 10 to 20 people participated from Lyari in the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament held recently, Nawab Baloch argued that coaching is not about spending money on boxers, it is about teaching them the required skills. However, he maintained, this could only be achieved if the government intends to back the completion of such a task.

Having coached Ali Baloch and a number of other boxers who made it in the big time, Nawab Baloch believed that boxers in Lyari have a lot of potential, but the official process of selecting boxers ruins everything. "Boxing is in our blood, and tough sports are what the people of Lyari want to specialise in, because it takes a lot of courage and strength to fight. Unfortunately, the real spirit of the game is not coming out in the ring these days," Nawab Baloch said.

The veteran coach was of the opinion that in the international tournament, there was not a single 'knock-out,' which in itself, is disrespecting the game. "If the authorities will keep real boxers away from the game through their policy of favouritism, then neither the game nor the talent will be able to prosper," he said. "The problem lies in the judgment system," Nawab Baloch continued, "the judges are biased, and even if any deserving boxer successfully makes it to the selection ring, the judges already have their decisions made."

Nawab Baloch said that paying hefty amounts of money to foreign coaches to train Pakistani boxers is a "waste of money and talent" due to two reasons: firstly, the communication gap between coach and trainer; and secondly, the fact that a coach who has groomed a boxer from childhood is well aware about his physique than anyone who has become acquainted to him for lesser periods of time. "The government needs to finance the clubs and coaches in Lyari, instead of bringing in foreign coaches, as the money paid to one foreign coach can be given to four local coaches, and the result would be far better," Nawab Baloch added. "Even if they bring in foreign boxers and coaches, but if the upcoming boxers from Lyari do not have access to them, then how do you propose improving the state of boxers from Lyari?" Nawab questioned.

Duped again?

Tears rolled down the cheeks of former international boxer Murad Bux when news was received that the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament was going to take place...in Lyari. "I missed the lively ambiance surrounding the ring, the cheering crowd, and the thrill of seeing the boxers punch one another," Bux told Kolachi.

Now in his 60s but continuing to serve as a boxing coach in Lyari, Bux had represented Pakistan at international boxing tournaments during his heyday, with some of his most memorable ones being those hosted in the city. Over the passage of time, international tournaments became rarities, and it was no surprise that there was genuine excitement amongst members of the pugilist community in Lyari.

Like many residents of Lyari, however, Bux never got the chance to step foot inside the venue, KPT Benazir Sports Complex. "There were vacant seats in the complex but the guards wouldn't let us in. Neither were common people let in nor were members of local boxing clubs allowed to enter," Bux told Kolachi.  "The tournament was meant to change the image of Lyari, but the eventual picture was a deceptive one as residents of the area weren't even allowed in to witness the competition. Only the favourites of the organisers were allowed to enter the venue," Bux said.

Nawab Baloch, another boxing coach in his 60s, concurred with Bux's account. "What is the point of such boxing championships, when neither my students nor I are allowed to enter the premises, despite there being a number of unoccupied seats," Baloch said. With over 35 years of experience in training street boxers who made it to national level, Nawab Baloch believed that events such as the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament bring prosperity only to the 'favourites,' while street boxing continues to be neglected.

Shah Naeem Zafar, the director of the KPT Benazir Sports Complex, said that the blame for the fiasco rested squarely on the organisers of the tournament. "Cards for the event were only given to selected people. Meanwhile, fans of boxing were deprived of a chance to watch the tournament, despite the fact that it was being held for their uplift."

Karachi South Boxing Association (KSBA) Secretary General Asghar Muhammad Baloch refuted the notion that such discrimination took place on purpose. "It is true that some people weren't able to see the event, but it was because of the fact that the invitation cards had been handed out days before the event. Those who had taken them at the time did not turn up, thus depriving those who really wanted to be a part of it." Despite the controversy, some pugilists of the area believe that hosting an international event in Lyari is in itself a success. "In a situation where many national teams are afraid to come and play in the county due to security reasons, as has happened in cricket, we hosted an international event with the participation of about 22 countries," boasted Ali Bux Baloch, former boxing champion and coach of the Pakistan boxing team."People in Karachi have long considered Lyari as a place where gang wars and conflicts are the norm; however, this is not the case. People here are keen to indulge in productive activities, if given a chance" said Asghar Baloch. "We broke the taboos associated with us" he added.  

Seventeen-year old Shahmira Oad, the daughter of Bachayo Oad, a resident of Hala, died on April 28, 2009, and was buried at the Khudabad graveyard, three kilometres southwest of New Hala town. According to local activists, Shahmira's relatives buried her there only after receiving permission from the locals, including the caretaker of the graveyard, prior to the funeral process.

Now some "outsiders" are trying to pressure the poor community to exhume the body from the graveyard, ostensibly because the body of a Hindu will "defile" the graveyard. The victim community then received a number of threats and visited local influential people, police and civil society, to request for protection.

Shahmira's grave is located about five meters away from other graves in the area, and the victims are demanding that they be allowed to building a small boundary wall around her grave to avoid a clash. Local activists said, however, that despite what the Oads do, "certain people" will not be pacified because they are looking to create problems in the area.

After a plea for help from Shahmira's relatives, a team of human rights activists and civil society representatives visited the graveyard and met with local people, including the religious leader Sheeraz Qureshi, to collect information and avert the possibility of a clash. The fact-finding team included Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Sindh Taskforce Coordinator Dr Ashothama, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) National Manager Kashif Bajeer, Sindh Rural Development Society Chairman Rehmatullah Balal, civi society representatives Abbas Khoso and Rafique Mangi, Sindhiani Tehreek leader Nazeer Qureshi, and others.

Trouble-makers

During the meeting, Sheeraz Qureshi, who claims to hold an MSc degree in Physics, showed the team a dozen "Fatwas" (religious edicts) given by traditional religious leaders belonging to different areas, saying that only Muslims are allowed to bury their loved ones in graveyards own by Muslims. Despite his claims, however, Qureshi could not show a single official letter or decision declaring the burial of the girl as illegal.

Meanwhile, Jeewan Chandio from village Khudabad, who was leading 22 main complainants against the burial, said that they did not like to take the law into their own hands or create problems in the neighbourhood. "We want to follow the legal process and will not keep silent until the bones of the strange girl are thrown out of the graveyard," he claimed. Senior villagers, however, looked on silently.

Contrary to culture

Earlier, Kashif Bajeer, Dr Ashothama, Rafique Mangi and Abbas Khoso tried to convince the village people and Qureshi, and reminded them that several graveyards in Sindh are common burial grounds for both Hindus and Muslims. For instance, the graveyards along the famous shrines of great Sufi saints, such as Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Sachchal Sarmast, Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed, and other spiritual leaders, are open for burial regardless of differences of caste, creed or religion. In the meeting, the visiting team observed that there was no role of the main stakeholders, the Sindh archaeological department. It was observed that local people were being influenced by miscreants who wished to occupy the archaeological site by using it as an ordinary graveyard.

Historically speaking...

The Oads have been nomads for centuries and are known in the subcontinent as indigenous civil engineers, constructors of ponds, walls, structures, canals and embankments. This peaceful community is highly skilled and still builds houses and large boundary walls with mud. They set up makeshift homes outside villages where they find work. They then shift to other areas as per contracts. The culture and life style of the Oad community is different from that of other scheduled castes. They give their children Muslim names, which shows that they have traditionally been very close to their neighbours.

Khudabad town was the capital of Sindh during the rule of the Kalhoras and the Talpurs. The graveyard in question, spread over around 25 acres, also contains the tombs of the rulers of the time, including Mir Thara Khan, Mir Ghulam Ali, Mir Fateh Ali, Mir Sobdar Khan, Mian Sarfaraz Khan Kalhora, Mir Bijar Khan Talpur and others.

Now the deserted town of Khudabad has been reduced to small village. The village elder, 80-year-old Ramzan Chandio, told Indus Watch that he saw the dilapidated walls of the old fort, palace and architectural buildings owned by Talpur rulers near his village, which have, by now, been destroyed. Similarly, the historical Khudabad graveyard is an archaeological site, which, he said, was being encroached upon by influential landlords. There are beautiful mausoleums and stone canopies, famous for superb craftsmanship, standing in the graveyard.

Thus, an issue which ostensibly revolves around illegal occupation of land, has been dragged through various channels. It now threatens religious disharmony, and the possible defilement of the remains of a dead child.

The small town of Sann in district Dadu lies some kilometres north of the site where around 70 activists of the Jeay Sindh Students' Federation (JSSF) were allegedly gunned down almost three decades ago by State forces, for opposing Gen. Ziaul Haq's dictatorship through the MRD (movement for the restoration of democracy). Apart from being the ground for major MRD-related skirmishes, the region also holds the distinction of being the hometown of G.M Syed -- accordingly, Sann transforms into the scene of political revival every year on January 17, as Sindh celebrates Syed's birth anniversary.

Syed has, through the decades, fired the imaginations of generations of democrats, humanists, and freedom-fighters; and the touching scenes at his graveside on January 17 prove the durability and reach of his political thoughts and ideology. Every main road, bylane, and highway in the province becomes a sea of red-white-and-black flags on this day, as hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life, including activists, peasants, workers, students, and even influential landlords, travel to Sann every year to pay homage to their "Saein" and Rehber (leader), G.M Syed.

"Toll plazas in Sindh are not allowed to collect toll tax from vehicles on this day," some visitors told Indus Watch. "They tried to, once, a long ago, but the people tied up the men at the toll booths, and beat them up. Ever since then, the highways of Sindh become a toll-free zone on January 17."

Traffic to Sann was much thicker this year for some reason. At Syed's graveside too, all one saw was a sea of earnest faces, many lined with years of toil and hardship, but filled with hope, much of which is inspired by the person to whom they had come to pay homage.

Amidst this celebration, however, one could not help but notice some limitations. For starters, women were almost non-existent. Small groups of them were either confined to tents and camps, or not present at all -- in any case, it looked like Sindh comprised only of men, and one wondered how the activists concerned could speak about the independence of a nation, without paying attention to the emancipation of women. This can, however, be excused to an extent -- the nationalist movement in Sindh is only just beginning to regroup after the major splits and breakups of the late 1990s.

The leadership needs to keep in mind, though, that the movement once held sway primarily because of its powerful Nari Tehrik (women's wing), which had brought out women -- 52 per cent of the population -- from the remotest corners of the province and mobilised them on a common platform.

Another drawback was the limited participation of religious minorities, despite the fact that Sindh has a large Hindu population. This limitation makes the mainstream movement look more like one for Sindhi-speaking Muslims, rather than a common platform for the people of Sindh in general. This drawback seems even more glaring, given the fact that the father of the movement, G.M Syed, was an avowed secularist.

Much of the blame in this respect also falls on the State apparatus, which wastes no time in classifying Hindu activists in the province as "tools of foreign agencies" and silences them through various means.

Despite issues, however, Sann on January 17 is a sight for sore eyes. Shops, houses, cars and people are decked out, "as if for Eid," as one visitor put it, and the entire province joins them to celebrate the birth of one of the greatest thinkers, ideologues, and leaders of the subcontinent.

Respect, hope, a roof over their heads

Hafeez Tunio reports on the beneficiaries of the SRSO's Union Council-Based Poverty Reduction Programme. The project, which is run in two districts of Sindh, has empowered many women by making them the sole beneficiaries of grants

Forty-five-year-old Rashida Khoso, and her family, residents of Wazir Khoso Goth in district Kashmore, used to have no option but to seek shelter in the houses of their neighbors whenever rain lashed the area. Rashida had no idea that the day will come when she will also be able to construct a proper house and her family's miseries will end.

"One day, my husband and I were working in the fields, when some people came over in a car, and started asking us about our. Initially, I felt that they had come to gather votes, but later they surprised us with the news that they were planning to construct a few houses in our village," Rashida said. "They agreed to provide me with a grant under the government's low-income housing scheme. Now my house, comprising two rooms and one courtyard, has been built and we are very happy."

She shared these views with Indus Watch during a recent media visit arranged by the Sindh Rural Support Organisation (SRSO) to brief journalists about "Union Council-Based Poverty Reduction Programme" (UCBPRP) which was launched recently in districts Kashmore and Shikarpur. The project, with a total outlay around Rs3.4 billion, was supported by the Sindh government for a period of 30 months.

"The project has changed the social status of women in these areas because under this programme, all schemes and grants, such as the Low-Income Housing Scheme, Community Investment Fund, Income-Generating Grant, Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Scheme, and the Low-Cost Village Improvement Scheme, are approved for women," said Dr Sono Khangharani, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the programme.

The fundamental purpose of the programme is to alleviate poverty. For this purpose, SRSO has used the Poverty Scorecard (PSC), developed by the World Bank and adopted by the Planning Commission of Pakistan. The PSC categorised entire union councils and districts into different poverty bands i.e. extremely poor, chromatically poor, transitory poor, and non-poor. One of the first activities under the UCBPRP was to conduct a survey aimed at identifying and categorising a total of 2,57,988 households in both districts. According to the survey, on the whole, 40 percent of the total population in both districts (104,339 households) fall in the three lowest bands of poverty.

"After identifying the area for intervention we start the process of mobilisation, and then capacity-building trainings for women, followed by capability-building trainings. Later, community- and village-based organisations are made by nominating office bearers who, with the consensus of their communities, identify poor women for the grants," said Zulfiqar Ali Nareejo, the district manger of the organisation in Kashmore.

Fifty-five-year-old Maasi Arab Khatoon is the head of Malik Machhi Goth, located adjacent to Ghauspur city in district Kashmore. "We granted around Rs25,000 to each woman as income generating funds, Now it depends on the woman; she can get cattle with that money, or opens a small shop for her husband to run their kitchen; anything at all," she told Indus Watch. "Earlier, women in our village did not have permission to step outside the house without the consent of their men. Since their families heard about the different grants being given to them, however, they have changed their mindsets. Can you imagine! I have been to Islamabad twice now along with other women to attend workshops! This programme has given us respect and hope."

"We also have the 'Community Revolving Fund', with a maximum limit of Rs30, 000. This is given without any interest and is returned in easy instalments. After the money is returned, the village organisation provides it to another needy woman," a female social mobiliser of the village told Indus Watch.

By November 2009, Rs147,579 million has been disbursed in both districts, Dr Khangharani said. A total of 1,638 women have received the grants and a majority of the grants have been used on the purchase of animal feed and seed for agriculture.

During the process of PSC survey and social mobilisation, the project team found that there are a substantial number of shelterless households in the villages. Rs60,000 have been earmarked to provide support to deserving households, Dr Khangharani said, adding that villages having 80 per cent poor shelterless households are being focused for the project.

Around 141 houses have been constructed, whereas 190 houses are under construction; Rs4.66 million have been disbursed to date among poor community members. By November 2009, 156 community members had been trained in agriculture and livestock for productivity enhancement. The project now aims to improve primary school systems for increased enrolment by making 100 non-functional schools functional; establishing 100 second-shift primary and middle schools and 100 education and 100 childhood education centres and school feeding programmes in two union councils.