Chin State - A mountain of troubles

Chin State - A mountain of troubles
Posted by: "Zomi News Network" zominews@yahoo.ca zominews
Mon Dec 7, 2009 4:14 pm (PST)



Chin State - a mountain of trouble




Photo: Contributor/ IRIN A view of the Chin hillsRONG
LONG, 7 December 2009 (IRIN) - In the remote western Chin state, Ngite
Pan, 46, ekes out an existence, feeding herself and her 15-year-old
daughter by planting millet. Occasionally, she sells a traditional
intoxicating brew called Khaung-Yay, also made from millet, which earns
her about US$4 a month.


It is the widow’s only source of
income, and most of this money is spent on buying rice to supplement
the millet - but it is not enough.



“Our main problem is getting enough food. There are many days in a year
when we have to skip a meal,” Ngite Pan said from her bamboo home in
the isolated mountain village of Rong Long in the south. “We see no way
out to escape these hardships.”

Mountainous Chin, bordering India and Bangladesh, is Myanmar’s poorest
state. Some 70 percent of its population lives below the poverty line,
rising to 81 percent in rural areas, according to UN agencies in
Myanmar, compared with a third of the population in the country as a
whole.



The Chin, numbering an estimated 500,000 in the state, with over half a
million more in the rest of the country, make up about 1 percent of
Myanmar’s population.



They comprise six main ethnic groups, including the Asho, Cho, Khumi, Laimi, Mizo and Zomi, with dozens of sub-groups.



Access for aid workers is restricted and agencies say there is not
enough basic data about the population, but that its problems are
numerous.



Challenges include “structural deficiencies, chronic food shortages
[and] widespread food insecurity”, Christophe Reltien, Head of Office
of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid
(ECHO), told IRIN.



For those unable to make a living off the land, a marginal livelihood
can be made scavenging for timber or bamboo, cane resin, honey and
orchids in steep, mountainous areas.



Photo: Contributor/ IRIN


Aung Htang Tan, 13, who forages for orchids in the mountains of Chin state to help pay his school fees and other needs



Acute food insecurity



Most of the population relies on shifting cultivation for their
livelihoods. However, there are limited viable farmlands and growing
population pressures, in turn leading to shorter field rotation cycles,
poor soil fertility and crop yields, according to the World Food
Programme (WFP).



Chronic food insecurity has been made worse by a rat infestation, which started in 2007 and is still destroying crops.



“The population of Chin State is vulnerable due to the rat infestation
and a general decline in agricultural productivity, shortage of
employment opportunities, low levels of education, poor water, poor
sanitation and lack of road infrastructure,” said a joint Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO)/WFP crop and food security assessment published this year.

Because of the rat infestation, more than 100,000 people are estimated to need food aid, according to the Canada-based Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO).



In a September 2009 report,
CHRO found that up to 82 percent of farmland had been destroyed in
certain regions, while more than 50 people died from the effects of
extreme malnourishment, mostly children.


“People are
going to the jungle and picking up roots and leaves and yams to eat.
They eat food which in normal situations they would not eat. There are
lots of health problems because of this,” Salai Bawi Lian, CHRO’s
executive director, told IRIN in Bangkok.



Beyond the immediate food crisis, Salai Bawi Lian said the Chin needed
help in moving away from shifting cultivation to more sustainable
agriculture.



Rights violations

Rights groups say the state’s population is vulnerable to rights abuses
by the government’s military, known as the Tatmadaw. A report
by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in January documented instances of torture,
arbitrary arrests and detention, and forced labour, although the
government has outlawed the practice.


“Those called
for labour are assigned to work on government projects without
compensation or daily provisions and under threat of punishment,”
stated the report.



Photo: Contributor/ IRIN


A
woman with an injured leg being carried from near Rong Long village to
the closest hospital in Mindat town - a half a day's walk away



Myanmar is a majority Buddhist country but more than 80 percent of the
people in Chin State are Christian, making them the target of
discrimination, according to activists. Thousands of Chin have fled to
Malaysia and to Mizoram state in India, where they share common ethnic
ties, but still face insecurity and poverty.



Health and education lacking



A WFP survey
of the food security situation in seven townships in May 2009 found
that households were mainly concerned with food, health and education,
but the majority were unable to afford these basic necessities and were
forced to rely on loans.


According to the HRW report,
there are only 12 hospitals, 56 doctors, and 128 nurses in the state.
Some hard-to-reach villages complain that government health workers
only visit twice a year.



Education is also lacking, with no universities in the state and 1,167
primary schools, 83 middle schools and 25 high schools.



“There is a dire lack of school facilities in many villages in Chin
State, forcing Chin children to walk to distant towns and villages or
pay expensive boarding fees to attend classes,” said the State of the
World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009 report by Minority Rights Group International.



Source: Integrated Regional Information Networks