Pakistani floods affect women, children and senior citizens most

t('articles.tweet')

* denotes required field.

• Your name *
• Email to *
• Comments *
• CAPTCHA *

Reset

PESHAWAR -- Almasa Bibi of Nowshera Kalan, sitting on the rubble of her former two-room house, said, “We don’t need food. Just tell me whether the government is going to rebuild my house or not.”

Even before the flood destroyed their house, she and her two daughters had been struggling since her husband's death. Her daughters work as housemaids. They lost their house, their two goats and the scant amount of wheat they purchased with a small grant from the Benazir Income Support Programme.

Women, children and the elderly were hit hardest by the floods. More than 70,000 women and children are living in different camps in local schools. Hundreds of thousands of others, after finding no place, pitched tents on the roadside, a tough place to live several days under a heavy downpour.

Unsanitary conditions in camps, disease-carrying carcasses and waterborne diseases are striking women and children hard.

“More and more doctors, especially lady doctors, should visit these places and hold camps to help the affected women, children and rest of the populace,” said Dr. Rafia, a member of the team of young doctors coming from Army Medical College and International Medical College in Islamabad.

Pakistan sets up centre for women, children

A Gender and Child Cell has been set up in the Pakistan Disaster Management Commission (PDMC) to address the problems being faced by women and children. Reports suggest that around 3m women are affected and 1m children also need health services.

About 1.5m women of reproductive age are among flood victims, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). It estimates that nearly 52,500 women will give birth in the next three months and about 53,000 newborns will need healthcare. More than 9,000 women will need surgery for pregnancy-related complications in the immediate future, it added.

"My sisters and I wept the first two days, but later we realised this is from Allah," said Gulmeena, a Nowshera college student now inhabiting a roadside camp in Azakhel. "You can't imagine how a woman from a respectable family feels when she has to go to the bathroom in the open or when gawkers ... taunt her."

The nights are harsh, too, with only a plastic sheet or a tent sheltering them.

Several displaced women have had to provide for children and elderly members of the family after male heads of households were killed.

"My house is destroyed. I have no food to give my six fatherless children," said Shagufta, who lost her husband, Lal Muhammad.

Apart from deploying fully seven staffed and equipped mobile units, the UNFPA is supporting 13 government health facilities in ten districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab. The organisation will help distribute nearly 2,000 birthing kits contributed by the Australian government.

Medics fear that hundreds of thousands of children risk contracting diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, skin disorders and other diseases if they don’t receive proper healthcare. Children lack the immunity adults have. Hunger and gastroenteritis have killed about two dozen children so far.

Gilani says women, children need care

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has expressed concern that more than 3.5m children are vulnerable to diseases, while over 500,000 expectant mothers also need doctors, surgical equipment, delivery kits and medicine.

While chairing a special meeting regarding health issues in flood-hit areas, he stressed the need for special arrangements for pregnant women and maternity cases. “It needs to be ensured that nobody suffers for lack of medical facilities and attendants,” Gilani said.

Women with cultural restrictions refuse to stand in queues for aid.

“The affected people, especially women, are not those who are standing in queues. They are waiting for Messiahs at home," said Nowshera Kalan elder Akhtar Manduri. "They are not going to shun their traditions for a sack of flour or a single cooked meal."

The worst situations remain in areas still inaccessible to rescuers.

An official of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said 660,000 survivors were still stranded in mountainous districts. “350,000 are stranded in Swat, 150,000 in Kohistan, 100,000 in Dir Upper and 60,000 in Shangla," the official said.