Heart-Breaking Discrimination
By Fikre Zewdie
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How important is “rights based approach to development” in a situation where poverty and deprivation predominate and preoccupy the minds and spirits of the poor people? How can one advocate and stand for human rights in an environment where people are suffering from constant hunger, ill health and lack of basic necessities such as shelter and clothes? How can people respond to calls for group mobilisation, organisation, association and networking, while they are abused and exploited by the powerful?
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These and other similar questions lingered in my mind as I made a visit to Rahim Yar Khan Development Area (DA) in May 2008.
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The DA takes pride in its substantial work on minorities’ rights especially addressing discrimination against local Hindu communities. I went to a village a few kilometres away from Rahim Yar Khan district town where Hindus are living at the margin of the local communities. They are denied their right to own land or property in the neighbourhood. Once a Muslim landlord beat up a Hindu boy for talking on the mobile phone while passing in front of him on his bicycle. He thought it to be disrespectful so he “punished” the boy and took away his mobile phone, told the DA coordinator as I listened in utter disbelief.
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He shared that once he was asked by a hotel manager to pay for the cups and plates used by a Hindu participant during “Livestock Management Training Workshop” in Lahore. “Our customers refuse to eat in plates that have been used by Hindus. You should have informed us before that a Hindu would be coming to the training.” The manager had said.
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On my way to another village, a Hindu activist, Sukh Dev, invited us to show his three square meter office where he collects and writes stories about his people and the situation in which they live. As we sat and talked, he sent his colleague, Ramesh Kumar, to bring us tea from a nearby tea stall. Ramesh came back with a thin plastic bag filled with tea. He was struggling to keep his hands from burning. A rather risky way to serve tea, I thought, until I was told that the tea stall owner did not want Ramesh to touch the kettle and teacups. “If you touch them, they would need to be thrown away and replaced” had been the warning from the tea stall owner.
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We went to two other villages where we met 5 to 14 years old children having literacy classes supported by ActionAid Pakistan. I was amazed by the speed of the teaching and learning going on in these literacy centres, and the neat handwriting and fluent reading skills these children had acquired in just four months! Despite having two government primary schools close to these villages, Hindu children prefer to study in ActionAid Pakistan literacy centres due to discriminatory and offensive environment of the government schools. “My teacher let all other children drink water from the glass while I was told to drink from my hands. I felt ashamed. I do not want to go back there” , shared a seven-year-old boy who had left government primary school to join ActionAid Pakistan literacy centre. It is a shame for a society to allow such humiliation and discrimination victimise an innocent young child.
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It is because of these discriminatory behaviours that most Hindus in Rahim Yar Khan, adults and children, are illiterate. I am glad to see that ActionAid is addressing this issue on a priority basis. We have managed to open very effective literacy classes for adults and children. We provide skills and vocational training for women; facilitate communities to have access to health, water and sanitation facilities and open up a platform for dialogue and debate on discrimination, exclusion, peace and inter-faith harmony.
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Many people I met and interacted with gave a positive feedback about ActionAid’s work in Rahim Yar Khan. They were pleased with the little positive developments; however, we need to focus on transforming institutional constraints, systems and policies that allow undignified and discriminatory social relations to continue.
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It is important to address gaps in governance and discriminatory attitudes in educational institutions. ActionAid Pakistan should increase its investment in strengthening poor and vulnerable peoples’ groups, associations and networks. ActionAid’s good name and credibility in the area must be utilised to support and link people’s struggle to the political leadership and policy makers.
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