Partition’s orphaned and abandoned children in Pakistan

Abstract

Alongside women, children were among the foremost victims of the 1947 Partition violence, and yet this group has been historically neglected by scholars. Countless children became orphaned and were adopted or sent to orphanages. Concomitant with these developments was the growth of an ambitious humanitarian movement to protect the orphaned children. While arguing that these movements spawned the modern benevolent institutions in the early years of Pakistan, this essay also poses the following questions: What was the role of the state and interventions of social workers vis-à-vis the orphaned children? What happened to adolescents after their discharge from charitable institutions? Did their trajectories lead them back into the mainstream of society, or did other fates await them? Drawing on previously untapped and rich archival materials, including the records of relief agencies, unpublished memoirs and government documents, this essay considers the varying circumstances in which children found themselves in orphanages, and explores the motives behind as well as the incidence and social implications of adoptions. It also studies how these charitable orphanages emerged out of a host of needs, expectations, resources and opportunities.