Flood-hit people facing problems in getting CNICs
HYDERABAD: No staff and computers are available at the Nadra centres as catastrophe-hit people have been facing problems in getting their CNICs registered, while swindling agents and police officials are exploiting victims, asking for bribes from community members in exchange for “fast-tracking” CNICs in districts, including Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad and Sanghar, a report released by People’s Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF) said on Friday.
Twelve banks are working in Mirpurkhas, but only one ATM was functional. As a result, Pakistan Card beneficiaries were facing severe issues.The PACF is a network of flood-affected communities, their representatives, volunteers and civil society in Sindh.
The 18th report of PACF titled “Situation of prioritized humanitarian mechanism for the most vulnerable population and absence of the early recovery services” has called for immediate intervention to six percent of female households, 133,000 persons with disabilities (13 percent), 28 percent older persons over 65 years, 20 percent families looking after chronically ill, and 24 percent minorities.
The report said that early child marriages and child trafficking had increased after the floods in Tharparkar. Incidents of child kidnapping and sale to district Sukkur had been reported. Furthermore, cases of abduction of Hindu girls from Tharparkar had been identified.
There was need for more humanitarian intervention in this district to resolve the child protection issues, the report added.Sharing the field experiences, the PACF report claims that social safety nets and programmes supported by the government working for the most vulnerable people as Zakat, Baitul Mall office, education programme for disable people, Benazir Income Support Programme and social welfare departments have suffered the miss-governance and politicization in distribution of services.
According to the report, they have helped in developing the child friendly spaces, basic healthcare services, food assistance, temporary shelters.It added that field observations and research suggest that funding generation from internal sources have not be mobilised to respond the situation for early recovery phase and majority of those organizations are waiting for external resource generation opportunities to support the flood affected communities in the early recovery phase.
About 1.28 million flood-affected vulnerable individuals especially minorities, women, children, elderly, disable, and chronic ill have less access to flood relief support in Sindh and resultantly are in a position of high risk.
According to the report, 67 percent of households were found without proper civil documentations prior to the flood and during the flood 17 percent of civil documents were lost further.
During the survey conducted by coordination mechanism 16 percent of the households were found having the problems accessing the Pakistan Card due to a number of reasons, including feelings of discrimination, lack of information, restricted physical access, and lack of CNICs.
Civil documents, in particular Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) and birth certificates, are frequently relied upon to identify beneficiaries, and manage distributions as well as facilitating access to certain services.
Highlighting the gender-based issues, the report said that out of the vulnerable population 93 percent of affected communities found without separate bathing facilities for women causing negative impact on privacy, sense of security and other gender related issues.
According to pre-flood enrolment ratio, around 39 percent of girls were enrolled in schools compared to 61 percent of boys and the floods have exacerbated the situation further. According to the Assessment Household (HH) Survey, 60 percent of families stated that children are out of school due to unavailability of schools and/or teachers due to recent flooding.
The survey also showed 70 percent of children have no learning materials. Besides, damaged schools have been found out in calamity-hit districts where children are compelled to get education, while keeping their lives at risk.
Discussing the negative food security situation, the survey said that 43 percent of rain-affected population is facing food insecurity, demanding immediate support, whereas 21,500 flood-affected female households are severely suffering from food insecurity.
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