The fall of Dhaka was not the end of the great tragedy. It was a new beginning for patriotic Pakistanis who refused to go along with the separatist elements of East Pakistan. While the Pakistan Army along with some civilians (and their families) from the erstwhile Pakistani establishment posted there could manage a safe passage to India as POWs, these Pakistanis were abandoned there at the mercy of the cruel Mukhti Bahini and of the Indian Army.
So far no help is visible on the horizon for these ill-fated people, not even food and medicine. In 2006, I visited few camps where these forgotten people are living in sub human conditions.
The problems that these stranded Pakistanis face at ‘home' include
Sanitation: One of the major health hazards for the camp residents are unsanitary living conditions. Clean drinking water is not available and the water supply often gets contaminated with sewage. Moreover, there is acute shortage of proper toilet facilities which adds further woe to these people.
Health: People living in these camps have very limited access to health care. Hospitals are far away and few private clinics which operate in the area are not sufficient to treat the huge number.
Education: Children at the camps are deprived from higher education. There are only two primary schools which provide basic education. One is in Muhammadpur camp of Dhaka and other is in Rangpur. There are no schools for higher education.
Source of income: Most of the camp residents work in low category level jobs like peon, and chowkidar. Some also work as barbers, hawkers, and rickshaw pullers etc.
There are reports that many of them have resorted to begging and prostitution also is not unexpected, especially the deprived conditions they live in.
Juvenile delinquency: Unemployment and lack of education has resulted in making the youth vulnerable to drug addiction. Often, the younger population faces difficulty in arranging marriages due to meager or no means of income. Most often the new couples have to share the same shanty camp with their parents which further aggravate the situation.
With poor accommodation, where sometimes as more as 12 persons have to sleep in a room the size of an ordinary apartment's toilet, the people have no choice but to sleep on the unpaved streets in extreme heat. I saw some camps in which there is only one room for the entire family of seven members. Often kitchen and bathrooms are a part of the same room. In some camps in order to avoid long queues for common toilets there are small commodes in the same room where camp residents live and eat. There is no sanitation; open sewers spew there contents, spreading disease as a result of which dysentery, tuberculosis and blindness are on high rise.
Where possibly can these forgotten people make their homes and provide security for their families is the grim question we face today. It is our collective responsibility to help out our fellow men instead of only relying on the charity that we offer.
Ehtesham Arshad is member, Advisory Board, OBAT Helpers, an NGO which works for the education and economical empowerment of the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh.
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