Tharparkar – A region that portrays a pictures of both beauty and adversity. Underneath the shocking mortality rates are deeper difficulties impeding human survival in this geographically, culturally, and religiously complex province of about 1.6 million people.
Living in cone-shaped houses, surviving on wild plants and herbs, drinking shallow ground water, Thari’s life goes on as it might have centuries ago.
Centuries-old temples, uniquely built houses, and eye-catching handicrafts are all engulfed in a haze of neglect. There is also a lack of understanding that preserves its history in its purest form, albeit in a state of continual decline.
Despite the fact that Tharparkar has been a kind of hostile, harsh, or merciless land for its residents, they have learned to evolve and adjust to these conditions. The life in Thar is adventurous, especially for those visitors who go there to discover the indigenous traditions and lifestyles of the locals.
Thari women have some of Pakistan's most terrible lives. Brightly colored apparel and bangles up to their shoulders (if married) depict what a Thari woman appears like on the surface. However, starvation, early marriage, teen pregnancy, everyday physical chores, and family responsibilities take their toll. Thari women work in fields wearing ghagras, which are long whirling skirts, and collaborate with their male counterparts to earn wheat to feed their families. They wear silver jewelry and wear veils over their faces. The veil shields them from the scorching heat and sand, as well as men's immoral gazes.
The Thari men are usually tall and dark. Most of them have moustaches and many keep beards too. They wear turbans, which symbolizes their pride in being a Thari.
Tharparkar is home to around 500,000 children. There are 165,000 students enrolled in schools out of this total. The district's literacy rate is less than 20%. Several times a day, most children can be observed herding livestock or accompanying their mothers to gather water.
The hot desert of Thar makes the largest part of the district of Tharpakar. Beautiful views of the sun-rising and sun-setting from the atop of due camel caravans and dunes with thorny bushes make some of the most peculiar scenes of the desert. The region holds a tropical desert climate. It is scorching hot in the daytime in summers and pleasant at night. Like summers, winters in the district see extreme weather conditions.
Beyond that, drinking water is still a rare commodity. The area is home to more than 1.6 million people and about five million head of livestock, and yearly rainfall averages as low as 9mm, making drought a typical occurrence. The population of 1.6 million people is deprived of health, education and clean drinking water, which is the basic need of human beings and they have been surviving on contaminated, saline and untreated groundwater. Their day begins with carrying water pitchers, which they fill from stored rainwater or small natural tanks after walking over 3 kilometers in the scorching heat. To deal with the water scarcity, the government and other parties are working hard to find a long-term solution to Tharparkar's water needs. Various approaches are being pursued at the same time, including solar-powered reverse osmosis technologies, solar pumps, groundwater extraction via drilled wells and hand pumps, rainfall collection, pipe water supply, and so on.
Inadequate rain patterns, occasional droughts, and lack of safe drinking water are only a few of Tharparkar's many problems, but the province government's incompetence is possibly the most serious aspect of this avoidable catastrophe. Every year, reports are requested, and commissions are formed to develop emergency preparations, yet none of these plans are implemented.
Meanwhile, the Tharis are still suffering and wondering when their thirst would be quenched.