KARACHI: Women in their traditional attire filling water in their clay pots or making lassi, happy children in schools, craftsmen busy weaving carpets on looms, the wrinkled faces of the elderly looking directly into the camera lens. These against the backdrop of acres of arid land pretty much sums up the story of Tharparkar.

“We didn’t think life could be so difficult for the people of Tharparkar until we saw for ourselves how they lived there,” said Shayan.

“On television we see people dying in Thar and we ignored it all. But going there and seeing it for yourself changes you in a way,” said Aijaz Tahir.

“Driving around in our van in Tharparkar, when we got thirsty, all we had to do was reach for a bottle of water in our icebox. That was when we realised how easy it was for us and how difficult for them it is to walk miles just for a pot full of water,” Ghalib Hasnain said.

“We often take things for granted but out there in Tharparkar the people become so happy after receiving the most basic of things,” observed Sameer Noman Qureshi.

“It was the greatest thing to engage with the people of Tharparkar and document their lives,” said Zahid Suleman.

These were the impressions of some of the young photographers whose work, ‘Tharparkar: beautiful & misunderstood’, became part of a photography exhibition showing the culture, lifestyle and landscape of the district, organised by Green Crescent Trust (GCT) that opened at the Alliance française de Karachi here on Friday.

“The work done by these young photographers brings to light some of the issues of Thar,” said Eric Touze, in charge of the programmes.

A special mention was made about Sarah Sandagne, a teacher at Alliance française de Karachi, who accompanied the photographers in Thar throughout the three days that they were there during fears about her safety amid her French colleagues back home and in Karachi.

“Tharparkar needs all the help it can get. The GCT that has been working for the betterment of the people there took a bunch of photographers to the district to bring Tharparpkar to you,” informed Saad Zuberi, public relations manager for the trust.

Speaking of Tharparkar’s immense potential and the issues plaguing the region and its people, Zahid Saeed, chief executive officer of the GCT, said that women there walk three to five kilometres to fetch around five clay pots of water for their homes. “That water, they don’t use to wash their hands or anything. Water is so precious that it is only used for drinking.

“And this is what gives rise to unhygienic conditions which make them sick,” he pointed out while explaining how the GCT arranged boring water in some areas where common illnesses such as diarrhoea is no more a problem.

“And the availability of water has resulted in more livestock while stopping the constant moving of the people or nomadism,” he added.

Another issue that has been taken up by the trust is the setting up of schools in the district.

“There are too many government ghost schools in Tharparkar while there is a shortage of teachers as well. And where the government schools do exist, the children cannot even read. With a severe shortage of food and water, the priority of the people there is to survive the drought in disastrous health conditions,” he said.

The rich coal reserves in Tharparkar, but hardly any human capital being installed from local communities there was another issue raised at the exhibition.

It was stated that such kind of a policy may lead to creating another Balochistan, which has huge gas reserves, but no expertise among the locals, who are now standing in the way of bringing in people from outside for doing the needful.

The evening also included the unveiling of a short documentary, the director’s cut of the Tharparkar photo expedition.

The photographs, around 10 to 12 images by each of the nine young photographers, along with artwork by students of the GCT’s Hilal Public Schools and handicrafts like rulli, embroidered dresses, etc, will be on sale and a large percentage of the proceeds will go to philanthropic initiatives in Tharparkar.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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