UMERKOT, Dec 29: Fifty-year-old Ali Ghulam Khaskheli has six children, three sons and three daughters, but all of them suffer from a hearing disability.

The eldest is 14-year-old Munawar. Mr Khaskheli first grew suspicious when Munawar was a baby and wouldn’t respond to voices around him. When Munawar grew old enough to talk and couldn’t, his father took him to a doctor in the area who explained to him that his son had been born deaf.

With Munawar’s disability, Mr Khaskheli hoped that his second child would be healthy. But it was not meant to happen. All of Munawar’s five siblings were also born with the same disability. Besides his six children, Mr Khaskheli’s 20-something brother-in-law, his brother’s wife and their two sons, aged two and three, also suffer from the same condition.

These ten members of the Khaskheli family are among the 7.14 per cent residents of Morkat village unable to listen or talk. The village lies six kilometres from Ghulam Nabi Shah town on the border of Umerkot and Sanghar districts. Out of 700 people living in the village, about 50 residents of all ages are deaf and dumb.

The elders of the village told Dawn that around five decades ago, there was only one disabled resident in the whole village. But now the number had increased to more than 50.

The elders bitterly complained that elected representatives visited the village to beg for votes but not a single media person, government official or social worker had ever visited the village for development work.

In a village which does not even have roads, electricity, clean drinking water or other basic necessities, it is unimaginable for Mr Khaskheli to fulfil his dream of sending his children to a school so that they might learn to read and write and could try to become independent.

There is not a single school for children with disabilities in all of Umerkot and Sanghar districts. Meanwhile the only primary school in Morkat village has been closed for a number of years. Mr Khaskheli’s neighbour, a young man named Rafique, said that out of 700 people in the village, only around five people had been lucky enough to have studied till the fifth grade.

For children there might be a ray of hope, said ENT specialist Dr Muhammad Hanif. Children’s ability to hear can be restored with cochlear implants but they are very expensive and cost around Rs1.7 million per a single device. But older people cannot benefit from the implant and the hearing aids available in the market were of no use to them either. Hearing aids were helpful for people who were partially deaf, he said.

Talking to Dawn, former MNA of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Khuda Bux Rajar, said that it was beyond his reach to provide all facilities to the entire constituency. Whatever he received, he said, were handed over to Khipro taluka. However, he gave assurance that he would look into the matter.