The fascination of Census Data in Baluchistan : Ken Gibbs

by Ken Gibbs

When I started work in UNICEF, Quetta, in 1985, to try to bring that Office back to United Nations’ administrative and financial norms, I had reason to study the published Census Data from around 1980. For Baluchistan Province, these data were presented in a series of large bound volumes entitled, “The Village Gazetteer”, and when studied, they produced a lot of information on the society, like that the adult female literacy rate in the Province was around 1%, only. It didn’t tell you why this should have been so, but sociologists were able to elucidate how this came to be – providing always that the data were reliable.

Because UNICEF was a very large donor in Baluchistan, it was natural that there were frequent contacts between the UNICEF office and the Baluchistan Government Administration. I found that it was expected for UNICEF to pay periodic courtesy calls on the Chief Secretary, which was always a pleasure because the then Chief Secretary, Mr S R Poonegar, was erudite and very patient. Well, he had to be with me because I come from a remote rural background in Zimbabwe, so was unaccustomed to the precise behavioural profile which was expected of me, so I usually trod with considerable care.

Mr Poonegar must have been a high achiever in the Civil Service exams, so could have chosen where he would serve his time. It also meant that he knew a lot about the Province so was an ideal candidate for the position of Chief Secretary. I came to understand that not only did he know a lot about Baluchistan, but about all areas of the country, and I was very fortunate to have benefitted from his occasional observations about current affairs. It was also obvious to me that he was anxious that the chaos that had been the UNICEF office in Quetta, be brought back to ‘normal’, so he was always interested to know what progress I was making in that regard. Of some consequence was that Mr Poonegar was a Parsee while the vast majority of people in the Province were Muslim.

There was one day when I had been invited for a periodic meeting with the Chief Secretary – perhaps to discuss some of the details for an up-coming donors’ meeting – and there were just the two of us in his office. As usual, he asked after my impressions of the Province as a way to start the discussion. We dealt with all the details of the forthcoming donors’ meeting, and then he started talking about the 1935 Quetta earthquake. He had a number of fascinating memories of the time which I wish I had recorded. As the conversation moved back and forth, it came back to some of the technical details that I had noticed in the Village Gazetteer, about which he had interesting comments. There was one burning question I had which I wanted answered which was that for all areas of the Province, ‘Illegitimate births’ were recorded as zero. I had never seen this in any previous census data from different places elsewhere in the world. Was ‘zero’ put there because of pressure from the Mosque ?

I believe that I phrased the question with as much sensitivity as possible, but he appeared to stop and think carefully how he would respond to me about it. I had obviously placed him in a difficult position, but he wanted to say something which would satisfy me – perhaps so that I wouldn’t raise the query again. I cannot remember the precise answer he gave but it conveyed the fact that while there might have been some illegitimate pregnancies, they were never allowed to progress to full term. With this, I knew I should not raise the issue again, even though the issue of a pregnancy caused by rape has always vexed me.

The interpretation of strict Sharia Law allows for stoning to death of a woman who has a pregnancy outside of wedlock though, in some places, the sentence is delayed until after the child is born and weaned. It would thus be taken that in Baluchistan, tribal customs ensure that an illegitimate pregnancy is not allowed to come to full term, thereby eliminating both the woman and the foetus. Incidentally, the punishment is usually meted out by the family itself, such is the shame that illegitimacy visits on the family.

There are some things I wish I didn’t know.

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