PROVISION OF HEALTH ASSISTANCE TO INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS OF SOUTH WAZIRISTAN AGENCY IN CAMPS IJPAMR

Since 2009, South Waziristan Agency (SWA) has suffe red a number of violent armed conflicts between security forces and Taliban causing massive destruc tion, several thousand deaths and creating over a h alf million displaced people. Due to negligence of issu es related to internal displacement in UN, internat ional and national law, internally displaced persons (IDP s) were afforded very little health care help durin g displacement. This research was designed to contrib ute to a policy or model to be developed to provide health care services for IDPs. The three objectives of this study were: to investigate the prevalence of health related problems in IDPs living in camp acco rding to their sex and age; to explore the causes o f mortality in IDPs living in camp from their sex and age perspective: to indicate the current nature an d range of health services availability to IDPs livin g in camp according to their sex and age. The resea ch employed mixed methods in achieving the above objec tives. It was conducted through surveys and indepth interviews (IDIs) with IDPs. Respondents for surveys were selected by applying systematic sampling technique with a random start. For this pu rpose 155 HHs were selected for survey & 5 respondents for IDIs in IDPs camps. This study foun d that children and old age people were affected th most by infections and diseases among many age grou ps while women in reproductive ages suffered more due to reproductive health issues as compared to men. The rate of mortality was also much higher among children and pregnant women as compared to ot her age groups in this study due to inappropriateness and irregularity of health care fac ilities. Although IDPs were affected by mental stre s as much as physical one, still health related faciliti es of psychiatric help were totally absent in camps . Based on the fieldwork it is found that local health depa rtment in Tank was not capable to handle huge numbe r of IDPs on its own and the study recommends interna io l community’s health related interventions to deal with the situation. It also recommends that th ere is a need to study IDPs situation in other agen cies as well to prepare a comprehensive policy document for IDPs of FATA. Background of the Study Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced due t o conflict every year globally (UNHCR, 2010). Forced to flee from their homes in search of pr tection, some are able to find refuge with families and friends, but most are crowded into cam ps where they become victims of further violence, mental stress, and disease (IDMC, 2012). As near the end of 2013, more than 28.8 million people were internally displaced by conflic t and violence across the world with more than 3.5 million people being newly displaced as a result of violence accompanying the “Arab Spring” uprisings in Syria (IDMC, 2012). The larges t regional increase in this instance in 2012 was in the Middle East and North Africa where 2.5 m illion people were forced to flee their homes (UNHCR, 2010). Recently, Pakistan has experienced large-scale inv olu tary internal displacement caused by a range of factors. The main cause for th is internal displacement in the spring of 2009 was the military operation against militants in Mal akand region of the KP province and FATA, International Journal of Public Administration and Management Research (IJPAMR), Vol. 2, No 3, August, 2014 Website: http://www.rcmss. com. ISSN: 2350-2231 (Online) ISSN: 2346-7215 (Print) Shahid Khan,2014, 2(3):84-97