1. Introduction

Relief in simple words is assistance in time of difficulty or it means to provide temporary comfort in trouble. Soon after the devastative earthquake the relief phase started and it continued for more than six months. During this phase the survivors were provided with goods of immediate needs. Their emergency needs were given preferences both by government and private sectors. The relief programs consisted of; recovery of the corpses, provision of edibles, tents, dresses, and cash amounts, medical facilities, formation of tent village etc

As the earthquake struck Pakistan, philanthropic works were started by various actors. Those involved government agencies, community itself, NGOs, religious organizations, Jihadist Groups, volunteer workers and political organizations. All these actors helped the victims in terms of providing them immediate help for basic recoveries. These philanthropic efforts were both physical and financial.

Cheques For Injured and Deaths

DEATH    Rs. 100,000
INJURY   Rs.25000 Major Injuries / Rs.15000 Minor Injuries

2. Impacts of relief works on the social life.

Relief works had great impact on the social life of the people of earthquake hit areas. Many major changes occurred due to the relief works.

2.1. Dependency Syndrome

Each household was provided with excessive amount of edibles such as wheat flour, ghee, tea, pulses, and rice. They were also given cash amounts by individuals, government and various organizations for more than six months, which developed dependency syndrome among the community and majority of them left working. They would roam around the area so as to find more relief goods. Many of them would catch every newcomer and asked for help by showing their national identity cards. This tendency led them to leave work and majority of them did not work for a year after the earthquake. Only few persons started work six months of major earthquake.

People are waiting for relief outside the camp of RDP (Rural Development Program me)

2.2 Changes in Statuses

The major earthquake brought a rapid change in statuses of the community people. Before earthquake there were strong feelings of superiority among the Swati (Caste) against Go jars and other castes. Usually Swati would consider; they are superior and it was reflected by their behavior and their residence patterns. Swati would keep distance from Go jars and Mazaree (Land worker on rent).Majority of Go jars and Mazaree would feel deprived due to their lower social and economic statuses.

Major changes regarding each aspect of human life took place i.e. people living in an unorganized and socially stratified society faced a change as after earthquake. They all were to face same problems of fear, hunger, shelter, and family disorganization. It was for the first time when all the residents of the village faced identical problems and all of them were in search of relief goods. During first days of the earthquake when helicopters would drop relief goods the community people both Swatis and Go jars would rush to catch more goods and in during that situation the class difference would not be given any importance.

Helping organizations would come to the village and the people of high status would also stand in rows with people of low status. All the residents would stand in rows for relief goods. During this process conflicts would emerge between Swatis and Go jars but the Swatis would get instant replies due to their new statuses as now all of them were equal. This tendency brought great disturbance in the village and after one month of the earthquake Swatis changed their strategy and threatened Go jars and Mazaree not to forget their past and after that they would contact helping organizations to come to the village and when helping organizations would arrive the Swati elders would lead them to the village as the officials of organizations were unaware of the village ethnic composition .so majority relief goods would be distributed among Swati people.

2.3 Impact on religiosity of people

All community members accuse of NGOs of spreading immorality among the females of area. People of the village developed sense of hatred and jealousy among each other. Before the earthquake they would cooperate but after earthquake majority of them have left cooperation with one an other. Before earthquake people would offer five time prayers in mosques but after earthquake the tendency of people to offer prayer has changed to a great extent. Only few elders go to mosques for prayer. Before earthquake people had fear of Allah (God) but after the earthquake this tendency has decreased. Regular aftershocks hit the area due to which many people terms those after shocks as missed call from Allah’s side.

2.4 Disputes

During the process of relief works helicopters would drop tents and other relief goods near the earthquake hit areas. People would rush to collect those goods. In this process weak and old individuals would remain empty handed. There were many cases of conflicts among the people for relief goods in earthquake hit areas. These disputes were of many kinds which are mentioned as under in a detail.

2.4.1. Inter Family Disputes

Inter family
conflicts had developed as each one wanted to get maximum relief .when the relief teams would arrive and prepare the list of Households with the help of indigenous people during this list formation process. Few people would get their names written. They would not tell the names of their relatives which then caused conflict.

2.4.2. Inter Group Disputes

During relief process many disputes emerged between Swati and Go jar groups. Swatis were economically well-off and they had lost assets comparatively more than Go jars.  They anticipated more relief goods but they received equal amount of relief goods from governmental authorities while they expected more share than that of Go jars and other people. “This situation was interpreted by the Swatis Balakot as due to ethnicity of District Nazim who was Go jar. From last few years politically the area is dominated by the Go jars and district Nazim was Go jar. So the Swatis would consider him to be responsible for all the process. Gojars, on other hand, considered themselves to be ignored in relief works due to Swatis as they would lead the officials of all the helping organizations in village and would provide them wrong data about Gojar families. The organizations officials would not involve all the community members in distributing process of relief. They would give preference to Swatis.

2.4.3. Disputes of Khan and Mazaree

The system of patron and client prevails in the area. The clients reside on lands of patrons. After the earthquake when the relief works were started the clients were given relief goods but after a month many patrons compelled the clients to leave their lands. When relief workers would arrive at the village the patron would not allow their clients to get relief goods. The patrons would also not let any one to write names of their clients for relief goods. This tendency led towards conflicts among patrons and clients. Few clients were beaten and their relief goods were taken by patrons. “Ashfaq was a Swati. He was landlord of village where as Safdar was a Mazara, working on the land of Ashfaq. After the earthquake a huge quantity of relief goods was distributed to the community. Mr. Safdar took a lot of relief. But his patron did not allow him to get relief goods. The patron would also not let Safdar to write name for relief goods. Few times Safdar was beaten by Ashfaq and his relief goods were set aside.  Ashfaq would not allow his client to work on his land as Mazara after the disaster.”

2.5. Exposure of Modern Technology and Outer World

After earthquake various cellular companies provided the area with mobile phone services. Majority of the community people when got cash amount in relief from government and other organizations bought mobile phones. This also affected norms of the area as in many cases young generation was accused of using this technology for love. Many local people for the first time came in contact with foreigners.

2.6. Economic development of community life

Majority of the people of earthquake hit areas did not buy edibles for a year due to the stock which they had received in relief from various organizations and government. Few Mazaras who had nothing before earthquake received a lot of relief goods, which brought dramatically change in the economic status. Many Swatis faced hard days due to the destruction of their houses and all luggage’s, which made them stand among the Gojars with low economic status. Upper class of the people of earthquake hit areas faced problems and received severe economic shocks due to earthquake .Same was the case with middle class population while the lower class population enjoyed the most positive impact of the relief. This brought a huge moral and economic support to these people.

2.7. Less community participation in decision making

Only in few cases community was taken into consideration while in majority cases they were given no importance in decision making due to which many relief works were considered as useless by the community. Certain programs were perceived as contrasting and disastrous for culture of the area. In majority programs the community was treated as recipients not as participants. So this causes as a big social change after the earthquake.

3. Summary and Conclusion

Current study was conducted in the earthquake hit areas of Pakistan. The basic question of the research was to find out that how relief brought the major social changes in the earthquake hit areas of Pakistan. The objectives of the study were to find out the reasons and causes of social change in relief process of the earthquake hit areas of Pakistan. The data was collected through anthropological techniques and methods. The researcher collected the data by using the qualitative techniques of participation observation, key informants, case study, socio economic and census survey, photography, random sampling, in-depth interviews and secondary data.

Earthquake brought an emphatic social changes in the norms and and values of the culture of earthquake hit areas of Pakistan. The majority of people were engaged in the equal cultural system where they were living in identical tent culture. The status was of no matter and the people were enchanting the relief aid from the local and foreign donors. Many of them were sitting free at home and it leads them to dependency.  If we look at the over situation we would see that earthquake has not come as an examination of local of Pakistan it has also come as a test of donations and help of the national and international agencies.

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