Ernest Dempsey – Natural disasters remind us how fierce nature can get to contradict the human delusion of being the most advanced species. Sadly, in some places, these kinds of emergencies also make the human attachment to their children stagger, and give way. What happened in Punjab province in Pakistan on Friday, September 9, is a living example.Following the latest flash of Monsoon rain in the country, a poor family in Punjab had to auction their children in the hope that they will be saved by their buyers from starvation. The incident took place in Dera Ghazi Khan (Punjab) where a poor, flood-affected couple took their eight kids to the commissioner’s office to complain that the government had done nothing to provide food to flood victims in the area. Since the couple lost all to the latest flood, they could not afford to buy any food, and hence were compelled by poverty to auction away their children. And that they did.
After the commissioner’s office drove the family out, even torturing them, they put their children for auction outside the commissioner’s office for the simple reason that the provincial government, which is supposed to be responsible for reaching out to its people in times of need, did not care to help and to ensure the lives of their kids, the poor couple had to make a gut-wrenching choice. Interestingly, the leader of the province’s ruling party gave a statement in the same newspaper, saying that politicians are obligated to help flood victims. At that time, this senior leader was visiting Sindh province, apparently to provide support (but not financial).
Certainly, we can and should blame the poor public for bringing so many children into the world even half of which they cannot support easily, let alone bring them up well. Most poor people in traditional Pakistani culture believe that religion encourages producing more kids and that family-planning or use of contraceptives is sinful. But the government too has failed badly in reaching out to the dregs that are the ultimate victims of all disasters—natural, financial, and political. Even the non-governmental organizations, some of which are doing some really good helpful work, are not there for the poor in times of need. Since rain was predicted and flash floods were very much expected, the NGOs should have been ready to address the flood victims at the earliest.
Yet, in the end, these were the innocent souls that had to be sold to keep them safe from physical starvation. Will more families will be torn by the neglect of the provincial governments in flood-hit areas? Probably, yes. But hopefully, this incident of the poor couple auctioning their very children will prove a didactic episode to both the government and the public in preventing such tragedies in the coming days.
