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Flood victims vow to fight for their rights
KARACHI: The flood victims, at a seminar organised for them by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), vowed to fight for their rights, lamented states apathy and described floods as a blessing that freed them from the clutches of feudal landlords.
Flood victims living at the Gulshan-e-Maymar flood relief camp, Super Highway camps and Sabzi Mandi, Hyderabad camp gave their testimonies while Nazim Haji of the Etimaad Trust and Karamat Ali of PILER addressed the seminar.
Speaking as one of the participants, Nazim Haji said preparations should start in advance in the wake of predictions for another cycle of floods this year. He said people would have to stand up and work on a self-help basis. There has been poor state support for the flood victims and committed citizens who had earlier generously helped have slowed down too. He expressed his scepticism pertaining to the preparedness of the government for natural disasters. He regretted that no effort was being made to repair the embankments of the River Indus. He also offered his organisations support for the rehabilitation of the flood victims. PILER Executive Director and labour rights activist Karamat Ali said that flood victims need to reassert their presence. Nobody can understand and speak for flood victims issues better than they could, he added. He urged the flood affectees to change their approach towards citizenship rights.
The flood victims said, Whatever little help was there when we were pushed to the cities after floods, has all gone now. People are being made to feel that the displacement is not the states problem. This is unfair. Not only the poor disaster management of the government added to our miseries, the disaster itself was the result of governments poor policy and governance structures.
Now when the government and the urban citizens think of us as nobodys problem, one wants to tell them that there are serious questions that need to be answered. Forcing us back to go home when the water has neither receded nor have any arrangements been made to clear the debris is most unfair and amounts to treating us as outsiders.
Ironically, few flood victims, in their testimonies, declared floods as a blessing in disguise. They said the floods forced them to move to the cities, and it was only upon reaching here that they realised how claustrophobic life has been living in the clutches of feudal landlords. People need to ask why the flood victims want to live in the cities and not go back if given an option, the flood victims asked. The fact is that we have been living a life of slavery for generations, they remarked.
They said that they were ready to help themselves, but the state must provide an opportunity to improve their lives. We are not ready to accept the life of misery that we have been living in the past, they added.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
KARACHI: The flood victims, at a seminar organised for them by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), vowed to fight for their rights, lamented states apathy and described floods as a blessing that freed them from the clutches of feudal landlords.
Flood victims living at the Gulshan-e-Maymar flood relief camp, Super Highway camps and Sabzi Mandi, Hyderabad camp gave their testimonies while Nazim Haji of the Etimaad Trust and Karamat Ali of PILER addressed the seminar.
Speaking as one of the participants, Nazim Haji said preparations should start in advance in the wake of predictions for another cycle of floods this year. He said people would have to stand up and work on a self-help basis. There has been poor state support for the flood victims and committed citizens who had earlier generously helped have slowed down too. He expressed his scepticism pertaining to the preparedness of the government for natural disasters. He regretted that no effort was being made to repair the embankments of the River Indus. He also offered his organisations support for the rehabilitation of the flood victims. PILER Executive Director and labour rights activist Karamat Ali said that flood victims need to reassert their presence. Nobody can understand and speak for flood victims issues better than they could, he added. He urged the flood affectees to change their approach towards citizenship rights.
The flood victims said, Whatever little help was there when we were pushed to the cities after floods, has all gone now. People are being made to feel that the displacement is not the states problem. This is unfair. Not only the poor disaster management of the government added to our miseries, the disaster itself was the result of governments poor policy and governance structures.
Now when the government and the urban citizens think of us as nobodys problem, one wants to tell them that there are serious questions that need to be answered. Forcing us back to go home when the water has neither receded nor have any arrangements been made to clear the debris is most unfair and amounts to treating us as outsiders.
Ironically, few flood victims, in their testimonies, declared floods as a blessing in disguise. They said the floods forced them to move to the cities, and it was only upon reaching here that they realised how claustrophobic life has been living in the clutches of feudal landlords. People need to ask why the flood victims want to live in the cities and not go back if given an option, the flood victims asked. The fact is that we have been living a life of slavery for generations, they remarked.
They said that they were ready to help themselves, but the state must provide an opportunity to improve their lives. We are not ready to accept the life of misery that we have been living in the past, they added.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
