Behind a herd of goats and clucking chickens scurrying around a dusty courtyard, three dilapidated doors open and shyly invite you into three dank cramped sheds. Each 10 by 10 feet structure resembles a defaced pigeon hole. It has a damaged roof. Inside, an internally displaced family of as many as 35 members live.
This is not the story of one migrant family crammed into one tiny room. At the overcrowded Talwara camp in Reasi district, merely 72 km from Jammu, over 900 families severely affected by conflict live in similar or worse conditions. The camp resembles an unsightly slum. It was allotted to these families by the government 15 years ago.
Most of the families living here escaped from remote villages nestled in the mountains following a reign of terror unleashed by armed insurgents during the 1990s.
Naajo Devi’s is one such family, struggling to keep home and hearth together. She was forced to flee from her village Naosi with her husband, Rikhi Ram, seven sons and three daughters.
Over time, Naajo’s family of 12 has expanded to 31, out of which 21 are Naajo’s grandchildren. “With a growing family, it has become difficult to survive in three small rooms. We sleep, cook, eat, and store household articles in the same home. It gets worse during the rainy season when water keeps dripping from the roof. We fear that the house could collapse any time.” says Naajo, rubbing her weathered hands in despair over her face.
Naajo’s family, like several other migrants, miss their happy life back home where they had adequate agricultural land, livestock and natural resources. At the camp, lack of sustainable sources of income and the absence of government aid have made life miserable. Most of the camp dwellers do manual labour or menial jobs to earn a livelihood. Even their children have to toil along with the family for sheer survival.
According to the government’s present relief policy, each displaced family is entitled to nine kg of flour and two kg of rice, besides a monthly cash compensation of Rs 400 for four members of a family. Also, each family unit is entitled to 10 litres of kerosene every month. Inhabitants of the camp rue that even this meagre entitlement reaches them slowly and sporadically. Of the 994 households at the camp, only 655 are presently entitled to relief and rations.
Sadly, the remaining 339 households have no assistance from any quarter. These families include those who have survived bullets and blasts. A resident of Channa village, Daleep Singh, does not get any monthly relief. His four-year- old daughter and pregnant wife were shot dead by militants. He was also hit by several bullets before militants left him for dead.
At the camp, Singh remarried and is now living with his second wife and two children. For the family’s sustenance, he works as a labourer on construction sites. “Due to lack of money, I could not get proper treatment for my gunshot wounds. The government has not registered my family therefore I am not entitled to any compensation amount. The government has provided us with a one-room tenement. That is it.”
Those migrant families who have a net monthly income of Rs 5,000 or more have been debarred from the relief and cash compensation. An ex-service man, Punjab Singh of Thanol village, decries thispolicy, “I have been laid low by many ailments. Most of my pension is spent on medicines. I am not entitled to any compensation or relief as I am a retired employee. I ask this government: did I do anything wrong by serving the country?”
Recalling memories of those dreadful days, Chawkidar of village Narkot, who also lives in the camp, said, “It was the cruellest day in our lives. On 17 April, 1998, 27 people were brutally killed by militants in our village. The next day, we fled the village en masse as there was no security of life.”
“During those days, gun-toting militants would roam freely in groups and they would kill and torture people,” interjects the Namberdar of the village, Chain Singh, who also lives at the camp with his family.
Owing to abysmal poverty, loss of dignity and pride is an everyday reality for these displaced people. A team from an Ahmedabad-based NGO, Justice on Trial, comprising former Governor of Himachal Pradesh, VS Kokje, and a former Additional Advocate General of the Rajasthan Government, GS Gill, highlighted their plight to the media in 2010. They claimed that starving migrant women were taking to the flesh trade – a reality that the world remains impervious to so far.
In their report, “Ordeal Of Jammu Migrants - From Frying Pan To Fire,” the team mentioned the miserable and inhuman conditions of displaced villagers from areas as far as Surankote, Kote Ranka, Kalakote, Banihal, Ramban, Kishtwar, Kwad, Bhaderwah, Pul Doda and Udhampur. The report, however, has failed to bring about any change.
The emotionally shaken villagers rue the fact that no one from the government has ever visited them. Their blood-stained memories still haunt them. Feelings of homelessness, post traumatic stress, depression, anxiety worsen their capacity to deal with the uncertainties life throws at them.
Words of assurance by successive governments and politicians have proved inadequate. These internally displaced people believe they are a discriminated lot. The Apex Court and the High Court have also chided the state government for not treating them at par with Kashmiri migrants.
According to Balwan Singh, Chairman, Migrant Action Committee, Reasi, “Migrants of Jammu and migrants of Kashmir are victims of the same circumstances. The government has failed to secure our lives and property - why then are we not being treated at par with the Kashmiri Pandit migrants?”
While the security forces and the government claim a considerable decline in militancy, the migrants refuse to return to their homes. The reasons go beyond security concerns. As they have been away from their villages for many years, they feel if they go back they will have to start from scratch. They do not have money to rebuild their houses destroyed by militants and the weather, or for purchasing livestock and making their long abandoned land cultivable.
“Restore our dignity. We are suffering in silence, unseen and unacknowledged. This is all we want to tell our government,” says every person surviving in these grimy migrant camps.
bulawaa@gmail.com
Charkha Features
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Behind a herd of goats and clucking chickens scurrying around a dusty courtyard, three dilapidated doors open and shyly invite you into three dank cramped sheds. Each 10 by 10 feet structure resembles a defaced pigeon hole. It has a damaged roof. Inside, an internally displaced family of as many as 35 members live.
This is not the story of one migrant family crammed into one tiny room. At the overcrowded Talwara camp in Reasi district, merely 72 km from Jammu, over 900 families severely affected by conflict live in similar or worse conditions. The camp resembles an unsightly slum. It was allotted to these families by the government 15 years ago.
Most of the families living here escaped from remote villages nestled in the mountains following a reign of terror unleashed by armed insurgents during the 1990s.
Naajo Devi’s is one such family, struggling to keep home and hearth together. She was forced to flee from her village Naosi with her husband, Rikhi Ram, seven sons and three daughters.
Over time, Naajo’s family of 12 has expanded to 31, out of which 21 are Naajo’s grandchildren. “With a growing family, it has become difficult to survive in three small rooms. We sleep, cook, eat, and store household articles in the same home. It gets worse during the rainy season when water keeps dripping from the roof. We fear that the house could collapse any time.” says Naajo, rubbing her weathered hands in despair over her face.
Naajo’s family, like several other migrants, miss their happy life back home where they had adequate agricultural land, livestock and natural resources. At the camp, lack of sustainable sources of income and the absence of government aid have made life miserable. Most of the camp dwellers do manual labour or menial jobs to earn a livelihood. Even their children have to toil along with the family for sheer survival.
According to the government’s present relief policy, each displaced family is entitled to nine kg of flour and two kg of rice, besides a monthly cash compensation of Rs 400 for four members of a family. Also, each family unit is entitled to 10 litres of kerosene every month. Inhabitants of the camp rue that even this meagre entitlement reaches them slowly and sporadically. Of the 994 households at the camp, only 655 are presently entitled to relief and rations.
Sadly, the remaining 339 households have no assistance from any quarter. These families include those who have survived bullets and blasts. A resident of Channa village, Daleep Singh, does not get any monthly relief. His four-year- old daughter and pregnant wife were shot dead by militants. He was also hit by several bullets before militants left him for dead.
At the camp, Singh remarried and is now living with his second wife and two children. For the family’s sustenance, he works as a labourer on construction sites. “Due to lack of money, I could not get proper treatment for my gunshot wounds. The government has not registered my family therefore I am not entitled to any compensation amount. The government has provided us with a one-room tenement. That is it.”
Those migrant families who have a net monthly income of Rs 5,000 or more have been debarred from the relief and cash compensation. An ex-service man, Punjab Singh of Thanol village, decries thispolicy, “I have been laid low by many ailments. Most of my pension is spent on medicines. I am not entitled to any compensation or relief as I am a retired employee. I ask this government: did I do anything wrong by serving the country?”
Recalling memories of those dreadful days, Chawkidar of village Narkot, who also lives in the camp, said, “It was the cruellest day in our lives. On 17 April, 1998, 27 people were brutally killed by militants in our village. The next day, we fled the village en masse as there was no security of life.”
“During those days, gun-toting militants would roam freely in groups and they would kill and torture people,” interjects the Namberdar of the village, Chain Singh, who also lives at the camp with his family.
Owing to abysmal poverty, loss of dignity and pride is an everyday reality for these displaced people. A team from an Ahmedabad-based NGO, Justice on Trial, comprising former Governor of Himachal Pradesh, VS Kokje, and a former Additional Advocate General of the Rajasthan Government, GS Gill, highlighted their plight to the media in 2010. They claimed that starving migrant women were taking to the flesh trade – a reality that the world remains impervious to so far.
In their report, “Ordeal Of Jammu Migrants - From Frying Pan To Fire,” the team mentioned the miserable and inhuman conditions of displaced villagers from areas as far as Surankote, Kote Ranka, Kalakote, Banihal, Ramban, Kishtwar, Kwad, Bhaderwah, Pul Doda and Udhampur. The report, however, has failed to bring about any change.
The emotionally shaken villagers rue the fact that no one from the government has ever visited them. Their blood-stained memories still haunt them. Feelings of homelessness, post traumatic stress, depression, anxiety worsen their capacity to deal with the uncertainties life throws at them.
Words of assurance by successive governments and politicians have proved inadequate. These internally displaced people believe they are a discriminated lot. The Apex Court and the High Court have also chided the state government for not treating them at par with Kashmiri migrants.
According to Balwan Singh, Chairman, Migrant Action Committee, Reasi, “Migrants of Jammu and migrants of Kashmir are victims of the same circumstances. The government has failed to secure our lives and property - why then are we not being treated at par with the Kashmiri Pandit migrants?”
While the security forces and the government claim a considerable decline in militancy, the migrants refuse to return to their homes. The reasons go beyond security concerns. As they have been away from their villages for many years, they feel if they go back they will have to start from scratch. They do not have money to rebuild their houses destroyed by militants and the weather, or for purchasing livestock and making their long abandoned land cultivable.
“Restore our dignity. We are suffering in silence, unseen and unacknowledged. This is all we want to tell our government,” says every person surviving in these grimy migrant camps.
bulawaa@gmail.com
Charkha Features
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