Tharparkar District

Tharparkar District
ضلعو ٿرپارڪر
District
View of city in the District
Country  Pakistan
Province Sindh
Headquarters Mithi
Population (2017)[1]
 • Total 1,649,661
Time zone UTC+5 (PST)
Website

www.tharparkar.com

Tharparker District

Tharparkar District (Sindhi: ضلعو ٿرپارڪر‎, Urdu: ضِلع تھرپارکر ‬‎), is one of the twenty nine districts of Sindh province in Pakistan. It is largest district of Sindh province by land area.[2][3][4] It is headquartered at Mithi. It has the lowest Human Development Index of all the districts in Sindh. Thar has a fertile desert and the livelihood of Thari people depends on rainfall agriculture.[5] Tharparkar has the only fertile desert in the world.[6]

Religion

According to the 1998 census, Muslims constituted 59% of the population and the Hindus 41% of the district's population.[7]

At the time of the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the Hindus were 80% while the Muslims were 20% of the population. In the years 1965 and 1971, population exchanges took place in the Thar between India and Pakistan. Thousands of Hindus (particularly the upper class Communists) migrated from Pakistani Thar to the Indian section of the Thar. 3,500 Muslim families also shifted from the Indian section of the Thar to Pakistani Thar.[8][9][10] The Muslim families were given 12 acres of land each (a total of 42,000 acres).[8]

Hindu temples

Chelhar
  1. Shri Devi Mata Mander
  2. Shri Murli Mander
  3. Shri Ramapi Mander
  4. Shiv Mander Chelhar
Mithi
  1. Lokesh Mander
  2. Shantoshi Maa Mander
  3. Shri Hanuman Mander
  4. Shri Krishna Mandar
  5. Shri Murlidhar Mandir
  6. Shiv Parvati Mander
  7. Shri Pir Pithoro Mander
  8. Shri Ramapir Mander
  9. Shri Guru Nanak Darbar
Other places in Tharparkar district
  1. Churrio Jabal Durga Temple at Nangarparkar
  2. Guri Mandir at Guri
  3. Krishna Mandar Kantio Tharparkar
  4. Nagarparkar temples
  5. Asthan Shri Dewal Mata Ji at Kaga Village (Chachro)

Education

Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017

According to the Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017, Tharparkar has an education score of just 30 out of a potential 100. The education score is composed of the learning score, retention score and gender parity score. Tharparkar’s retention score is just 26, while the gender parity score is only 64.[11]

Lack of infrastructure

Out of the 155 ranked districts, Tharparkar is ranked 128th in the middle school infrastructure score index, which focuses on availability of basic facilities and the building condition of schools. The lack of electricity and drinking water in schools remain a concern in the district, along with unsatisfactory and dangerous school buildings.[11]

200 schools in district Tharparkar are temporarily dysfunctional. 78 schools are viably dysfunctional while 170 schools in the district are permanently dysfunctional. 345 schools in district Tharparkar are shelter-less, 1,929 schools out of the total 3,439 schools are one classroom schools. Only 22 schools in whole district have science labs while 3,413 schools do not have a library.

Gender Disparity

The literacy rate for adults aged 10 years and older is 54% for males and 21% for females. Only 21% of the total schools in the district are girls’ schools. Due to lesser number of schools, enrolment sees a steady decline as we move up the classes, especially from class 5 to class 6 and class 8 to class 9. Girls are more affected by this than boys. Only 34% of the total enrolled students are girls.

There are only 673 primary schools for girls compared to 2,506 for boys, 31 middle schools for girls compared to 182 middle schools for boys and only 7 high schools for girls as compared to 33 high schools for boys. There is no higher secondary school for girls in Tharparkar.

Learning Outcomes

In the “2013-2018 Five Years of Education Reforms in Sindh. Wins, Losses and challenges for 2018-2023.” report, data from the Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) report published by the Sindh government in 2017, was analyzed to discover that students from Tharparkar ranked among the top 10 districts for Maths and Science subjects, while it ranked among the bottom for languages. In grade 8 Maths, Tharparkar ranked first for student achievement.[12]

Thar Science Festival

Students in Tharparkar proved their passion for Maths and Science at the Thar Science Festival held in February 2018 with the collaboration of Alif Ailaan, Thar Education Alliance, and several other organizations.[13][14] Over 15,000 students from government and private schools traveled to Mithi to participate in and attend the first of its kind festival in Tharparkar.[15] Covered extensively in the print, electronic and digital media, the festival received commendation from the people of Thar, community leaders and politicians alike.[16]

Citizen Reporting

On the TaleemDo! App, a number of education issues have been uploaded by active young leaders and activists in the district. In government schools, infrastructure, governance and teacher issues are prevalent. Many school buildings are used as personal guesthouses of influential landowners. Teacher quality and teacher absenteeism is a grave concern, as it results in closed schools.[17] The education crisis in Tharparkar is severe, and immediately needs the attention of concerned authorities.

Administration

The district is divided into 7 Talukas (tehsils):[18]

Towns

See also

References

  1. ↑ "DISTRICT WISE CENSUS RESULTS CENSUS 2017" (PDF). www.pbscensus.gov.pk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-29.
  2. ↑ "Districts of Sindh, Pakistan". Wikipedia. 2017-09-13.
  3. ↑ "Population - Pakistan Bureau of Statistics" (PDF). http://www.pbscensus.gov.pk/. External link in |website= (help)
  4. ↑ "Districts of Pakistan". Wikipedia. 2017-10-22.
  5. ↑ Genani, Manoj (2016-10-21). "Unbelievable pictures of Thar desert after the rain". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  6. ↑ "Tharparkar is the only fertile desert in the world - Online Sindh". Online Sindh. 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  7. ↑ Tharparkar District Official Website - District Profile - Demography
  8. 1 2 Hasan, Arif; Raza, Mansoor (2009). Migration and Small Towns in Pakistan. IIED. pp. 15–16. ISBN 9781843697343. In the 1965 war, Pakistan captured a large area of the Indian part of the Thar desert, and in 1971 India captured a large part of the Thar desert in Pakistan. Many UCs in Pakistani Thar were Hindu majority areas, and Pakistani Thar as a whole was dominated by the Hindu upper caste who controlled most of the productive land and livestock. They also dominated the politics of Thar and strictly enforced caste divisions, making upward social and economic mobility almost impossible for the Hindu lower castes. Their control over the caste system also ensured the maintenance of agriculture-related infrastructure through baigar (forced labour) and the protection of forests and pasture lands. Following the 1965 and 1971 wars, the Hindu upper castes and their retainers fled to India. As a result, the feudal institutions that managed agricultural production and the maintenance of infrastructure collapsed. This has had severe repercussions on the natural environment of Thar. In addition, the lower castes were freed from serfdom and to some extent from discrimination. Many of their members, as a result, have acquired education and are important professionals and NGO leaders. Apart from the migration of Hindus to India, 3,500 Muslim families moved from Indian Thar to Pakistani Thar. They were given 12 acres of land per family (a total of 42,000 acres), thus introducing another factor in the social and political structure of Thar and creating a new interest group.
  9. ↑ Maini, Tridivesh Singh (15 August 2012). "Not just another border". Himal South Asian. It was not 1947 but the Indo-Pak war of 1971 which proved to be the game changer on this part of the border, since it was then that Hindus from Sindh, worried about persecution in Pakistan, fled to India. The cross-border train service had already been stopped following the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and resumed only in 2006. Hindu Singh Sodha, a 15-year-old at that time he fled Pakistan in 1971, has set up the Seemant Lok Sangathan, which has been fighting for citizenship rights for all Hindu refugees from Sindh. During the war, Muslims from this region also fled to Pakistan.
  10. ↑ Arisar, Allah Bux (6 October 2015). "Families separated by Pak-India border yearn to see their loved ones". News Lens Pakistan. Retrieved 25 December 2016. Another woman, Amnat, a resident of Umerkot had a similar story to tell. She was married at the age of 17 and her husband took her to Pakistan. She is presently 60 years old. Her husband passed away 23 years ago. “My father Abdul Karim had also migrated from Rajasthan, India to Umerkot”. One of reasons is that his daughter lives in Sindh. Her father narrated to her that at the time of Pak-India wars, Muslims in the border’s districts were robbed, killed and harassed by the Indian army, hence he preferred to migrate to a Muslim country like Pakistan to avoid confrontation. She recalled that in the 1965 War between Pakistan and India; Kaprao, Konro, Boath, Vauri, Gahrr jo Tarr, Dedohar, Mate ka Talha, Bijhrar, and a number of other border villages were evacuated. Four persons were killed in the village of Kaprao by the Indian Army based on the allegations that they had been helping the Pakistan Army.
  11. 1 2 Alif Ailaan 2017. Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017. Islamabad: Alif Ailaan. vi-66 pp. ISBN 978-969-7624-06-5
  12. ↑ Alif Ailaan 2018. 2013-2018 Five Years of Education Reforms. Wins, Losses and challenges for 2018-2023. Islamabad: Alif Ailaan. vi-42 pp. ISBN 978-969-7624-08-9 https://elections.alifailaan.pk/wp-includes/file/SindhEducationReport18.pdf
  13. ↑ "Thar Science Festival 2018 | #TaleemDo". elections.alifailaan.pk. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  14. ↑ Samoon, Hanif (2018-02-14). "In pictures: First-ever science festival in Thar attracts people in droves". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  15. ↑ Samoon, Hanif (2018-02-16). "Thousands visit Thar science festival during two days". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  16. ↑ "Science Festival in Thar | TV Shows - geo.tv". www.geo.tv. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  17. ↑ "تھر پارکر کا جھونپڑا سکول اساتذہ کی کمی کے باعث بند | #TaleemDo". elections.alifailaan.pk. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  18. ↑ "District Government Tharparkar". Archived from the original on 2010-08-28.

Coordinates: 24°44′24″N 69°48′00″E / 24.74000°N 69.80000°E / 24.74000; 69.80000

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