Razia Sahto was in her early thirties when her mother Zulekha passed away in 2020. What she inherited from her late mother was a rented three-room house in her hometown, Tando Muhammad Khan, and two dozen orphans taken in by her mother over the years.

Amidst the cacophony of sounds made by children of varied ages, Razia tells Eos that this passion project started accidentally in 2000, when her mother found a newborn, who had been left in a garbage dump.

Zulekha promptly brought the child home, and raised her with her nine children. Over the years, the numbers of such orphans continued to grow, while Zulekha gained a reputation in the area for being a mother to those who had been abandoned.

TAKING OVER THE MANTLE

In 2017, Razia tells Eos, a nurse at the local government hospital in her hometown called her, informing that a newborn girl, who had been left behind by her mother, was in critical condition. Razia promptly went to the hospital and brought the baby home with her, after getting her the required treatment.

This was at the same time she was about to get married. Her fiancé, however, was not willing to raise the baby, as the girl had an “intellectual disorder”, she tells Eos.

The orphans of Sindh’s Tando Muhammad Khan have found a loving guardian in Razia Sahto, but bureaucratic red tape is jeopardising their future…

“So, I decided to live with orphan children, who were once brought up by my mother,” says Razia, who remains single to this day.

While Razia’s mother had run the orphanage on an ad hoc basis, Razia got it registered as a welfare organisation in 2022.

In the same year, she helped find partners for four orphans under her care, who had grown into young men and women, and married them off.

Today, the Zulekha Foundation is home to 24 orphans, along with a local widow, who helps Razia take care of the children.

KEEPING IT AFLOAT

Razia says her mother would raise funds from local philanthropists to make sure the children had what they needed. But these contributions can vary and tend to be inconsistent, she adds.

Despite being a high school graduate, it is untenable for Razia to have a job while looking after the children. For a while, she complemented the charitable contributions with sewing jobs to raise funds for the children she continues to take in.

Her brother, who drives a rickshaw, would also contribute to the orphanage, adds Razia. “But it has become difficult for him since his marriage,” she continues.

Despite that, she continues to find solutions. The children are enrolled at a local private school that doesn’t charge any fee. “I manage the uniform and their books, though sometimes we get help in that, too,” she says.

According to Razia, she spends at least Rs100,000 on household expenses. “But that figure goes up when children get sick,” she adds, cradling a one-year-old.

Razia’s unconventional choice has also resulted in some criticism. “Some of my relatives are unhappy with the path I have taken, who taunt me for wasting my life on children with unknown parentage,” she says.

For Razia, though, it’s a noble cause and a continuation of her mother’s legacy. “I always tell them that I cannot let these children suffer and I will be their mother,” she says with conviction.

“My mother was my inspiration and it was her will that I become the guardian of helpless kids.”

GETTING ORPHANS INTO THE SYSTEM

Razia understands the importance of education and wants those at her orphanage to receive a good education as well. But there, she has run into an unconventional problem.

As long as Zulekha was alive, she had her and her husband’s name entered in the parents’ column of the orphans, when registering them with the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra).

While this policy was discontinued more than a decade ago, after the digitisation of Nadra and following input from the Council of Islamic Ideology, this change was apparently not implemented in Tando Muhammad Khan.

As a result, the orphanage — despite not being registered at the time with the social welfare department or Nadra — was able to function as a legal entity. The orphans were issued birth certificates, enabling them to enrol in school, open a bank account and have access to whatever little perks and privileges that are available to a Pakistani citizen.

After Zulekha’s death, when Razia tried to get the orphans registered with Nadra, she was told that it was not possible because, as she was a single woman, she couldn’t provide a name to add in the father’s column.

She made several visits to the Nadra office in her hometown, where she was given one reason after another for their refusal to issue birth certificates for the children.

When Eos contacted Nadra on the issue, they reiterated that orphanages have to separately register with Nadra once they are registered with the relevant social welfare department. After this, the children at the orphanage can be issued birth certificates.

But it involves a bit of roulette. “In case of unknown parentage of a child, any unspecified names of the parents are randomly selected from the Nadra library,” said Nadra in a written response to Eos.

It did clarify that there are no restrictions on a single woman running an orphanage, as long as the governing authority of the said orphanage designates her as the guardian, with their “name … mentioned on [the orphan’s] identity card as a guardian.”

However, Nadra officials in small towns and rural areas are often unaware of this policy, according to lawyer and activist Tahera Hasan, who worked with the Edhi Foundation, which runs one of Pakistan’s biggest orphanages, on the issue at the time of the policy change.

Hasan’s concerns aren’t unfoun­ded. Eos contacted a Nadra official in Qambar Shahdadkot regarding the issue, who highlighted Razia’s marital status as one of the hurdles in the process. Moreover, the Nadra official failed to mention that orphanages are required to register separately with the authority.

MOVING FORWARD

Razia has since expedited efforts to get the required documentation to Nadra. “It seems like I am getting the runaround from them,” she says with exasperation. “I don’t know whether they don’t want to help or they don’t know how to,” she wonders.

Her frustration is understandable, as she struggles to keep her orphanage afloat and provide for the best possible future for the children she treats as her own.

Razia knows she needs a bigger space and more resources for her burgeoning household — eight boys and 16 girls, ranging from one-year-old to strappy teens — but more importantly, she wants them to get an education.

“They have the right to get everything that is provided to children with parents,” says Razia with conviction.

In that, she deserves every bit of assistance, including from Nadra.

The writer is a Sindhi fiction writer, blogger and journalist.
He can be reached at akhterhafez@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, November 24th, 2024