KARACHI:A fully functional institutional set up covering healthcare and humanitarian assistance needs to be installed at the district level to tackle any future pandemics such as the Coronavirus, said experts from the civil society in a webinar on Humanitarian Assistance in Covid-19 Lockdown – Insights from the Ground. The webinar was organized by The Knowledge Forum, an independent collective that seeks to produce knowledge-based resources to assist in interventions and advocacy for communities’ rights on Tuesday.
The panelists included experts and members of the civil society and the community that actively contributed toward COVID-19 relief efforts. Sabiha Shah of Women Development Foundation, Ghulam Mustafa Zaor of HANDS, Jan Odhano of Community Development Foundation, Adeel Ahsan of Muslim Hands-UK, Kazim Syed of Research and Development Foundation, and Naghma Iqtidar, a local activist and human rights defender, shared their respective experiences of covid-19 relief efforts.
Speakers observed that the kind of volunteerism that was witnessed during Covid-19 lockdown was unprecedented as volunteers played an important role in facilitating communities in accessing day-to-day needs and also in reassuring communities in times of acute uncertainty.
Ghulam Mustafa Zaor, Chief Services Executive at Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) said that as compared to rural areas, urban poor were the worst hit sections of the society during the lockdown as their jobs were lost and they could not receive any financial support from their employers or the state. Daily wages labour, domestic workers and sanitary workers faced job losses and severe economic crisis.
According to him people were already facing economic hardships before the pandemic and majority of daily-wage earners were living hand to mouth. They needed immediate support for dietary and healthcare needs during the lockdown. The purchasing power of common citizens massively declined during this time, he remarked.
Speakers also observed that a mechanism to support the poor was missing. “The government initiated relief efforts along the same pattern as floods or earthquakes, without realizing the need for maintaining social distancing, to contain the spread of the disease. The centres set up for distribution of Rs 12,000 announced by the federal government under the Ehsaas Programme witnessed huge crowds, which had a potential for further spread.”
Zaor appreciated the role of media in creating awareness on health issues during pandemic. “It is commendable that cellular phone services were utilized at such a vast scale to reach out to the population for following Covid-19 SOPs.”
Jan Odhano, Executive Director of Community Development Foundation said many national and international organizations joined hands with the government in distribution of ration and other relief goods. “We assisted the government in identification of seven isolation centers in Jacobabad district. District Jacobabad saw an overwhelming response from local philanthropists and businesses. They provided more assistance than the government provided to the vulnerable communities,” Odhano said.
Syed Adeel Ahsan from Muslim Hands UK, said organizations such as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) have a critical role in facilitating access and communication with the community. He said the Muslim Hands UK worked closely with the government departments which helped in reaching out to 39 districts in Pakistan for food ration distribution.
Responding to a statement about community’s concerns on the quality of relief goods, speakers agreed that during the course of any humanitarian assistance, the communities must not feel that they were discriminated against at any level.
Ms. Naghma Iqtidar, a local activist and human rights defender pointed out that except for Edhi Foundation, many charity organizations in Karachi meted out discriminatory treatment towards religious minorities in ration distribution.
She said that absence of database of the low income communities cripples any effort to provide effective relief to the community. This was also noted by the government that it failed to reach to the daily wage workers because of non-availability of their data.
During the first month it was considered that this pandemic would end soon. The developed countries had systems to support their population. In Pakistan, we do not even have a database of the low income communities, she said adding that the upper middle class survived and even hoarded daily use items, but daily wage workers were badly affected.
Ms. Sabiha Shah, CEO at Women Development Foundation Pakistan said Covid-19 has destroyed the economic wellbeing of low income people. “People are still struggling to cope with the after-effects of the lockdown,” she said adding that in low-income areas such as Lyari and Malir people needed financial support. However, the Ehsaas Programme failed to reach out to a majority of those that needed support.
Kazim Syed, head of Quality and Research Unit in Research and Development Foundation (RDF) said one way of addressing a similar humanitarian crisis in future is to register informal labour. “Social Protection for informal labour needs to be formalized and regularized.” Sharing his experience he said on some occasions, many organizations had to face a mob situation at the time of relief distribution.
Earlier, in her welcome remarks, the TKF Director Ms. Aazia Rafiq said the TKF, being an independent collective, seeks to produce knowledge-based resources to assist in interventions and advocacy for communities’ rights. She said one important outcome of Covid-19 was that it locked people in their own homes. “There were job losses and people felt economically crippled. While one hopes this situation never repeats itself, it is important that relief efforts be institutionalized and people be given assistance in a dignified manner.”
She said that a dialogue on lessons learnt from such crisis can guide future efforts at assisting communities in times of emergencies. “TKF plans to hold a series of such knowledge sharing sessions, to contribute to a more informed perspective on communities and expand space for highlighting their voice,” she said while concluding the session.