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Facing religious persecution, the minority Hindu population from Pakistan has been fleeing and seeking refuge in India since the time of the partition. As radicalization increases in Pakistan, the number of people escaping atrocity also increases in the same proportion.

These persecuted people emigrate from Pakistan each year to escape discrimination, denial of equal development rights, violation of human rights and forced conversions. While being in Pakistan, the girls felt unsafe, and all of them faced pressure to convert, one immediate negative coping mechanism was to drop out from schools.

Most come from the Sindh province, where the Hindu population in Pakistan is concentrated. Largely these migrants owned land and did farming in Pakistan. Generally, these refugees arrive at valid pilgrim visas, then seek extensions through long term visas month after month.

The Government of India has administrative arrangements for Pakistani Hindus; they may obtain long-stay visas but they are not considered as refugees by the government.

There are almost 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements scattered around India. Delhi and Jodhpur have one of the maximum numbers of the refugee population that have arrived in the last two decades. About 4,230 people, who have migrated from Pakistan in the past five years, are housed in camps in Delhi and Rajasthan.

Refugees in the Majnu ka Tila camp have been arriving in India since 2013 while those living in Signature Bridge camp have been arriving since 2018. As of now 140 families (700 persons approx.) are residing in the Majnu Ka Tila camp and 85 families (350 persons approx.) are residing in Signature Bridge camp. While in Jodhpur there are 21 camps of the migrants in which around 18,000 non-citizen migrants and 12,000 citizen migrants have been staying.

Out of these camps in Jodhpur, five camps are in dire need of support for health, livelihoods, education, legal aid and basic amenities. The details of these five camps are as under: 1. Gangana main (200 families), 2. Gangana 2 (100 families), 3. Chokha (70 families), 4. Marwad Nagar (80 families), Kali Beri settlement (100 families).

We, at HAI, are rigorously working towards the comprehensive development of refugees in Delhi and Rajasthan through activities across the domains of education, health, livelihoods, basic amenities and legal assistance to ensure their eventual integration in India as healthy and productive citizens.

Current situation of Pak-Hindu refugee camps in India

Affected refugee families are facing the following major problems at this time in the camps:

Washing facilities issues

• Lack of bathing facilities/ infrastructure
• Lack of a waste collection and disposal system
• Health risks and skin conditions due to poor drinking water quality
• Fluctuating drinking water supply
• Absence of toilet infrastructure leading to open defecation
• Lack of communal handwashing stations

Education related issues

• Lack of infrastructure and services of Anganwadi: Children below 6 years are unable to receive pre-school education and services such as (i) supplementary nutrition (ii) Pre-school non-formal education (iii) Nutrition and health Education (iv) Immunization and vaccination (v) Health check-up and (vi) Referral services for 0-6 years of children
• Refugee children facing difficulties in getting admission at public schools due to lack of Indian identity documents
• Children are unable to compete with their peers due to their admission in school on the basis of age than academic levels
• Banks refuse to open bank accounts for some of the children, preventing them from enrolling in school and receiving benefits such as uniform/book allowance
• Lack of transportation to the closest schools is the major reason for absenteeism in school
• Lack of awareness/ unwillingness among refugee parents not allowing their girls reaching the puberty age to attend formal schools
• Protection remains a concern for children since they have to walk through the forest to reach schools

Health related issues

• No/irregular ASHA worker visits the camps
• Cases of malnutrition among refugee children
• Lack of access to clean water leading to health issues such as kidney stones and skin infections
• Lack of awareness on health and hygiene among the refugee population
• Poor water, hygiene and sanitation conditions in the refugee camps
• Lack of waste collection and disposal system within the camps, further posing health risks
• Common health issues prevalent among the refugee population are hypertension, kidney stones, skin infections and diabetes

Immediate Action required to help the refugee families

• Urgent need for mobile toilets since camp residents, especially women and children, have to resort to open defecation in the nearby forest
• No electricity in the camps except for the solar lights installed by HAI which has its own limitations. Approaching summer and extreme heat remains a concern along with need of more water supply points
• Schooling of children with special needs is the utmost priority
• Psycho-social counselling to refugee parents to encourage them to send their children to school and receive formal education
• Supporting the drop out adolescents to resume education
• Since Signature Bridge camp is located in a remote location in the middle of a forest and the women and children belong to a vulnerable population, protection remains a concern
• Improved housing by providing refugee families with local materials so that the families could improve their current living conditions
• Restoration of toilet blocks, bathing space, water points, internal pavements, drainage and garbage disposal system remains the major concern

HAI in Action

Livelihood Support: HAI is supporting skill training, entrepreneurship & business training, establishing market links for the sale of products and establishing a group of women producers to improve livelihood and employability among, with a focus on the creation of a Training-cum- Production Centres for women’s groups, skill training for adult refugee men /youth through skill training schemes and programmes, marketing support to refugee businesses along with entrepreneurship & business training.

Education support activities: There is a strong need to provide education for youth who have missed educational opportunities at home and need basic literacy/numeracy education and to acquire a productive vocational skill. HAI is engaged with building remedial education centres for children of school-going age, higher and tertiary education support programmes for refugee youth and adolescents and arranging adult education classes for refugees on language, literacy, numeracy and financial literacy.

Creation of legal aid, awareness and documentation support centres in each camp: HAI is working towards establishing legal support centres managed by one advocate and camp administrators. The legal support centre will be responsible for undertaking activities like the creation of legal aid, awareness and documentation support centres in each camp.

Long term action plan

• Need-based relief support
• Long-term livelihood activities
• Psychosocial health care support
• Local employment generation with a focus on skill development for the refugee population
• Adoption of community approach to limit dependency

We have created this video report on the condition of Hindu refugees from Pakistan. Please watch it and share it on social media so that more people are aware of this humanitarian issue

Here are some pictures from HAI team’s visit to Pak refugee camp in Majnu Ka Teela in Delhi.

A 2019 study published by the EU on ‘Societies outside Metropolises: The role of civil society organisations in facing populism’ recommends that “Concrete and consistent actions over time are needed in order to empower civil society organisations in those regions to deliver their mission and play their role of speaking on behalf of those who are underrepresented and advocating for the marginalised, and to educate and create a kind of genuine bond between different communities”. However, the way the international aid sector currently operates most instrumentalises local and national CSOs as subcontractors for their agendas, rather than supporting them as independent civil society actors catering to the real needs and priorities of the community and encouraging their governments to act as the duty-bearer and protect people’s fundamental rights. The Covid19 pandemic has extensively and adversely impacted the aid architecture, at a time when the lifesaving assistance to population facing natural disasters or protracted crises is most needed. Local organisations are facing further marginalisation at a time when they are at the forefront of the response, be it Covid19 health response or economic or other crises caused during this period. Download Statement.

Dear Grand Bargain Sherpas,

We, one of the multi-country networks of local actors actively engaged on localisation, know that the next annual meeting of Grand Bargain on 24-25 June 2020, is open only to the Grand Bargain Signatories, and only Sherpas will be able to use audio and video. We see the signatories wanting to talk about the future of Grand Bargain and strengthening local action, without presence of local actors around the table who continue to face obstacles to get included in a process, designed for their empowerment. We have tried to proactively engage with the localisation work stream but have been very disappointed with the lack of response. We have seen systematic exclusion and discrimination against meaningful participation of a diversity of local actors in many of these processes.

We believe you share our concern of seeing less than expected progress on most of the workstreams, according to the self-reports of the signatories. The World Humanitarian Summit triggered several good processes, intending to reform the humanitarian architecture and practices for overall aid efficiency, mitigation of needs and better support to the affected population. Given the slow progress, we are hopeful that the Signatories would use the next annual meeting to introspect on the reasons for the slow progress, define the mechanisms to fix the accountability and answerability and come up with a future roadmap which is more inclusive, equitable and respectful of the local actors.

The local actors do not want to remain passive beneficiaries of a change process. They rather want to have equal stake, ownership, shared leadership and representation across all the processes and the discussion fora. We, as one of the committed network of local actors, firmly believe that the signatories are genuinely interested to deliver on the Grand Bargain commitments by overcoming the barriers. As we do not have the privilege of being present, we would like to request that you kindly reflect on the following issues during the annual meeting in our absence:

• Reflect on the recommendations, made by Alliance for Empowering Partnerships (A4EP) in its paper ‘The Grander Bargain’ and incorporate them in the future plan of the GB
• Engage local actors and their various relevant networks, including A4EP, in the discussion deciding future of the Grand Bargain, as that largely determines our future
• While finalising the next 12 month’s plan, keeping Covid19 response into consideration, do plan adequate engagement of local actors in the planning process as well as the implementation
• Please ensure adequate representation of local actors (at least 50%) in the 5-year anniversary meeting of the Grand Bargain
• The 5″ annual report, instead of being a self-report from signatories, should be externally verified and written, based on the evidence provided by the signatories
• Restructuring of workstreams in the final year to ensure at least 50% leadership position going to local actors
• Signatories to publish cumulative financial reporting on IATI or FTS to ascertain the quantity and quality of funding being passed on to local actors
• Report on all the financial investments that have been made on localisation research, meetings and conferences and their effectiveness in terms of tangible change
• Since the country offices of the signatories have often been the biggest barriers in the localisation process, a system ought to be created to make them as accountable and answerable as their headquarters are. IASC definition shouldn’t be manipulated in the final year of the GB to deny funding to homegrown local actors.

Although, local actors are overwhelmingly not allowed to participate in the annual meetings, we are still optimistic that our concerns would be heard and reflected on during the 2-days of the meeting, and that appropriate space would be created for us for future collaboration.
In the humanitarian architecture, each of us have to play the complementary role. As Signatories, you have acknowledged the significant role local actors play during a humanitarian response. We have equal realisation of the complementary role you play to strengthen us. Hopefully, next time we would be sitting across the table as equals to exchange ideas.

Members of the Alliance for Empowering Partnership

#LocalActorsMatter

Date: 05 April 2020

HAI has mobilised a large group of volunteers and established coordination with the Delhi government and local administrative units to complement the efforts of the state and national government in dealing with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. HAI is currently focusing on the National Capital Region of Delhi, while trying to expand its activities in the states of Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. HAI’s current focus is on the population working in informal sector and daily wage earners who have suddenly become income and food insecure since the lockdown has been announced. Since the state response capacity has been overwhelmed, HAI is also helping the state government and the local administrative units with relief supply and use of technology, particularly for surveillance. HAI’s key achievements are presented below:

Activities at a glance: 

• Starting from 26 March 2020, HAI has provided cooked food to at least 12,900 people until 4 April, and continues providing food 2,500 people on daily basis
• 192 refugee families have been made food secure through a provision of food kit consisting of pulses (10 kg), edible oil (4 litres), wheat flour (40 kilos), turmeric (200 grams), coriander powder (200 grams), spices (1 pkt), chilli powder (200 grams), salt (1 kilo) and sugar (5 kilos). Please see the video of HAI’s food distribution in Majnu ka Tila here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyfOsaqGiq4
• Answered at least a dozen desperate calls from food insecure families and arranged for at least two weeks food, milk and necessary provisions to such families across Delhi
• Provided hygiene materials, including soap and sanitisers, to at least 225 refugee families  
• Conducted multiple awareness camps on COVID-19 Do’s and Don’ts, symptoms and proper hand washing 
• Disseminated COVID-19 IEC materials in refugee camps in Majnu Ka Tila and Signature Bridge camp on 17 March 2020
• Starting from 18 March, ensured regular clean drinking water supply in Signature Bridge refugee camp, which otherwise had no source of clean water. HAI also distributed jerrycans to 60 family for water collection
• Conducting online psychosocial meetings to address stress and psychological impact of the pandemic on the general public – HAI has conducted two sessions, so far, with the help of a qualified doctor
• Developing a COVID-19 virtual care platform – an app to support health care workers for tracking, monitoring and responding to COVID-19 
• Supported the Delhi police for surveillance of crowded areas and a quarantine centre through the Drone for Humanity platform of HAI. Please see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMkqtjkQpmA

Plans:

• Continue with the cooked food distribution up to 14 April 2020
• Provide dry ration for a month to at least 300 families more 
• Initiate programme for sanitation workers to ensure their protection through the provision of awareness and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 
• Pilot disinfecting public spaces through drones 

The Bulletin can be downloaded from here.