There are 140 households in the Hindu Refugee camp near Gurudwara Majnu Ka Tila. Most of them fled their homes in Pakistan, escaping discrimination and religious persecution, and came to India between 2011 and 2013. Coming to the Indian side the refugees are now experiencing hunger and a lack of care from the authorities for their needs.
The families only have rice, flour, and sugar which will help them have two meals each day for another week.”But there is very little of lentils and vegetables left. There is no money, so there is no gas. The policemen are not letting us collect firewood from the banks of the river,” said Rani a homemaker woman in the camp.”We don’t have fodder for our famished cows. Earlier, we would collect it from the jungle. Now, even that is now allowed due to the lockdown,” she says, adjusting the only small wooden log inside the ‘chulha” to keep the fire burning.
Families have been bathing and washing clothes without any soap. “There is no soap. How do we wash our hands? We have been wearing the same clothes for 3-4 days on the trot,” he says. Dharamveer, the colony leader says the policemen had been asking them not to go to vegetable markets or even to the wheat fields across the Yamuna to find some work.
The men are mostly daily wagers doing odd jobs and the lock-down had brought their hopes sink in Indian soil.The refugees demand immediate care from the Indian government to relieve their distress.
Post Your Comments