Go home. Gujarat is back to normal

Frontline,
The government wants the camps closed. Chased away, refugees are even living under trees.

DIONNE BUNSHA

When Vadodara’s government officials forced all the relief camps to close down and crammed all the refugees into one camp, Zubeidabibi Mansoori was one of those persuaded to go back home. But two days later, she had to come running back to the camp. “They sent us back from the camp, even though our house hasn’t been repaired since it was ransacked and looted. After two days, a fight broke out in the neighbourhood, and we had to leave once again,” she says. When they returned, the camp was too crowded to accommodate Zubeidabibi’s family and others from her neighbourhood. But luckily, a builder stepped in and offered to let them stay at one of his sites.

First, they were attacked and had to flee from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Then, they hid in street corners, fields and forests for days. When they made it to relief camps, they were crammed in, living under the most miserable conditions for three months, with no hope of returning. Many have had no choice but to live in graveyards. Now, the government is pushing refugees out of the relief camps, the only place they have any shelter. With the Gujarat government adamant on shutting down the camps at any cost, refugees are being shoved on the streets. Although the government has stopped supplies to several camps, hundreds of refugees continue to live there. They can’t go back to their old homes either because they are still threatened or because they don’t have the money to rebuild their homes.

The Gujarat government claims there are only 16 camps housing 16,495 people all over the state. In reality, there are 30 camps in Ahmedabad alone that are still running, sheltering as many as 38,200 homeless people, according to a survey conducted on June 19 by the Citizens Initiative, which is providing supplies to the camps. The government claims that there are only six camps in rural Gujarat. But many more exist. They have just been de-listed and supplies to them have been stopped, even though people are still living there. It’s all part of the BJP government’s cover-up operation. It is trying to get rid of refugees at any cost in order to prove that the state is ready for elections. The BJP is hoping to win the election, riding on the Hindutva wave and the terror that its Sangh Parivar has been able to instil during their recent pogrom against Muslims in the state.

“The government has stopped everything - food, water, electricity - in the camp. We have 1,000 refugees in the Vadali camp. In our district (Sabarkantha) itself, there are five to six camps,” says Amanullah Khan, an organiser of the Vadali camp. If the Gujarat government was to be believed, camps no longer exist in Sabarkantha. “People who try to return to their village are coming back to the camps. Just yesterday, around 100 people came back. Local leaders threaten them. Some are facing an economic and social boycott. Others are scared of what will happen on July 13th, when the Jagannath Rath Yatra procession is taken out. Riots have broken out during this festival in the past,” says Khan.

As the monsoon sets in, life in the camps is becoming even more difficult. With the uncertainty that camps may shut down any day, many people are rushing to relatives’ houses or rented houses, according to a survey of camps in Ahmedabad conducted by the Citizens Initiative from June 14th to 18th. Only nine of the 19 camps surveyed had made arrangements for shelter during the monsoon. Camps need Rs 30 worth of rations per head daily, whereas the government provides supplies (both in cash and kind) worth only Rs 7. Medical care has also been inadequate. Four camps had not received any medical aid. Jaundice is now spreading in five camps. Although legal assistance is urgently need, only four camps had received offers for legal aid.

But the government remains unconcerned with these minor details. “Short of throwing people out on to the streets, officials are using various tactics to pressurise people into leaving. They have stopped ration and water supplies. Monsoon shelters haven’t been built. They tell people that they will not get three months free ration, to which they are entitled, unless they leave the camp,” says a Citizens Initiative organiser. Even camps which are still registered are not being supplied the full ration quotas. At the Shah Alam camp in Ahmedabad, the biggest camp in Gujarat, the government is supplying rations for only 7,300 people, although the camp shelters 12,150 refugees. “Officials take a headcount in the camp during the afternoon, when most people are out. They are unwilling to accept the numbers listed in camp registers,” says a Citizens Initiative organiser.

The government is washing its hands off any responsibility towards the refugees. “For how long can the government feed them indefinitely? We have given them cheques to repair their homes and also sufficient time to construct their homes,” said S.M.F. Bukhari, the state government’s chief co-ordinator of relief. When it was pointed out that 70 per cent of people haven’t received compensation and those who have been given cheques got pathetic amounts starting from Rs 71 and averaging Rs 2,000 to 3,000, Mr Bukhari said, “What we are giving is assistance, not compensation. We cannot pay the full amount of damages. Aid is given as per the government engineers’ estimates.” So, far the government has spent Rs 62.08 crore on rehabilitation (see table). With the chief minister Narendra Modi claiming that 95 per cent of the rehabilitation is complete, it is yet to be seen what the rest of the Rs 150 crore given by the central government as aid of the riot-affected will be used for.

But rehabilitation isn’t as simple as distributing cheques. In Halol, another camp that has vanished from government records, several refugees want to return to their homes before the monsoon but haven’t been able to. “We have a lot of land. We want to go back before the monsoon and put up the roof of our house. But the sarpanch won’t let us return. The police has arranged several meetings with them, but they say they don’t want Muslims in their village. Its our village as well,” says Madinabibi Pathan from Pavagad village in Panchmahal district.

People from Randhikpur village in Panchmahal district also haven’t been able to return home. Many have camped in nearby Baria village after the Godhra relief camp shut down. They are still waiting for a time when they will be accepted back into the village. Several powerful VHP leaders in the area have been accused in the mass murder, rape and loot of the village’s Muslims and are now intimidating them to withdraw the police cases. In the few places where voluntary organisations are helping people rebuild their houses, they are finding it hard to recruit local workers. “They are still scared to have any kind of interaction with the Muslim community,” says Sejal Dand, from the NGO Anandi, which is rebuilding homes in Boru village, Panchmahal district. In some places, Hindu residents are intimidated by local leaders and goons, and are forced to implement the social and economic boycott of Muslims.

Although the government insists that Gujarat is back to normal, stray incidents of violence continue. In Baroda, at least four minor clashes have occurred in the last two weeks. With many of the criminals still unpunished, there is still danger involved when people return home. KPS Gill’s appointment as security advisor to the Gujarat government hasn’t been as effective as projected by the media hype. Police are still to take action against the accused. Several cases have still not been filed. For example, in Ahmedabad, only 936 cases have been registered and 3,900 people were arrested, a small number considering that 440 died and around 60,000 were made homeless in the city.

Gujarat’s refugees may have disappeared from government lists, but they are still hanging about the relief camps and relatives’ houses, waiting to go back home. Only genuine help, rather than coercion, will actually reduce their numbers.

Frontline, July 6 - 19, 2002 Also available here