Villagers in Pakistan-Occupied Gilgit Baltistan Struggle with Lack of Medical and Educational Facilities

In remote villages of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan (PoGB), several people have lost their lives due to the absence of medical facilities and poor road access. The local village head explained that the community, which has been living there for over 100 years, faces severe challenges due to the lack of medical infrastructure.

He said, “We have lost lots of lives because of having no medical facilities. We barely manage with wooden stretchers, and we are forced to sometimes carry pregnant ladies. Most of the time either the mother dies or the child’s life is lost.”

He added, “Not only mothers, we are sometimes forced to carry injured people, and several of them have lost their lives in transit. The only medical personnel available to us visit this village once every two to three months, and we gather donations of approximately PKR 20000 to pay them.”

Another local resident stressed that the lack of medical infrastructure is just one part of the problem, with education being a major concern. He said, “We barely have any educational infrastructure. There is a small school kilometers away from us with only one teacher who is struggling to provide education to the students in the valley.”

In another report, a local resident mentioned, “The government is doing nothing for our valley. We haven’t seen any officials here, and we haven’t received any assistance from the local government. It has become very difficult for us to afford even one meal a day. They are even cutting down our forests. We don’t understand why this is happening.”

He added, “Nothing is being done for us, and when we speak out about deforestation, we are threatened with imprisonment by government officials. We fear retaliation. Look at our conditions: there is no dispensary, and the roads are in poor shape. The lack of proper roads creates numerous problems for us.”