The Toba Tek Singhs Of Today’s India
By: Gulzar Bhat
The refugee population that has migrated to the country from West Pakistan continues to live in miserable conditions. Not only are these people devoid of many basic facilities, they do not even have papers to prove they are Indians, writes GULZAR BHAT
In the immediate vicinity of Vijaypur in Jammu is a 12x12 room outside which scores of people make a beeline every day. The sparse room has a wooden table laden with piles of files, a few plastic chairs, a couple of cabinets and a squeaky ceiling fan spinning slowly. This is the office of Labha Ram Gandhi, president of the West Pakistani Refugee Action Committee, fighting for the rights of the refugees living in wretched condition for sixty five years now.
After attaining superannuation from Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry as Hawaldar, septuagenarian Labha Ram devoted himself to the cause of West Pakistani refugees who migrated to Jammu during the melee of 1947. “Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. Since I myself am a refugee I can best understand their agony and misfortune. Although I am no power-wielding man, I am working to get at least their small issues resolved by making frequent pleas to the authorities”, says Labha Ram.
About 21,000 families, 90 per cent Hindus and 10 per cent Sikhs, mostly belonging to a category ubiquitously called ‘disadvantaged’, migrated en masse from West Pakistan in the wake of the 1947 violence and have been living in deplorable conditions across the Jammu region since then. After more than 65 years of migration, they are still bereft of the civil and political rights exacerbating their living conditions.
This large chunk of refugee population is denied their basic rights in a plethora of matters including elections to State Assembly and panchayats, recruitment in State Government services and acquisition of immovable property — all because of the special constitutional status granted to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution. Section 6 of this Article recognises only those people as permanent citizens of State whose ancestors lived in Jammu & Kashmir for a minimum period of 10 years, till the cut-off date May 14, 1954.
“Because we aren’t recognised as subjects of J&K, the Permanent Residence Certificate — an important document making a person eligible for getting a Government job or owning immovable property and availing other benefits in the State — is not issued to us,” says Labha Ram.
Since West Pakistani refugees cannot acquire immovable property, they are deprived of the ‘absolute rights’ on the land allotted to them by the Government under Cabinet order number 578-C of 1954, in the wake of their migration and thus they cannot sell it or mortgage it for the purpose of loan.
For them, seeking admission in Government technical colleges or making a ration card is quite an uphill task as in both the cases, PRC is a ‘must produce’ document. “Every day, scores of people from different refugee localities visit my office with issues like denial of admission to students in technical colleges, reluctance of authorities in issuing ration cards and so on”, says Labha Ram.
Although the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has issued directions to the State Government, in 2008, to make necessary provisions for granting certain concessions including waiver of domicile requirements in providing admission to the children of West Pakistani refugees settled in the State, the concerned authorities are rather contemptuous of such directions.
Eighty-year old Dev Raj is dewy eyed as he recalls Bhishan Singh, the protagonist of Saadat Hassan Manto’s much acclaimed short story, Toba Tek Singh, when asked about his national identity. “I was just 15 when we fled our native town Shakarpur (now in Pakistan) in 1947. Sixty five years have passed since, but I am still searching for the identity I had in Shakarpur. We are the lost and right-less citizens of the world’s largest democracy”, says Dev Raj.
It is worth mentioning here that West Pakistani refugees have approximately 50,000 votes divided among 15 Assembly constituencies which are not being polled during the State legislative election owing to their non-voting right.
Most of the West Pakistani youth are unemployed, idling at home, inflicting a deleterious effect on their psychological well being and triggering a feeling of alienation amongst them.
Sapna K Sangra of Jammu University says, “It has been seen that the problem of unemployment among displaced persons is affecting their psychological health. Alcoholism is common among them and, since they know they can’t get employment in State Government, they have lost interest in education.”
A West Pakistani refugee woman, who managed to become a graduate, concedes, pleading anonymity, that after going through a cumbersome process she managed to obtain a PRC with the hope of getting a Government job in future; else the years of toil spent on her studies will go waste.
In 2007, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then Chief Minister of the State, constituted a committee under GD Wadhwa to look into the problems concerning refugees. The committee made several recommendations in their favour but were, predictably, barely implemented.
Whatever said and done — Acts, legalities, amendments, boundaries — nothing is above humanity. Time is high when we should look at refugees as humans first and take care of their development issues. Everything else will follow.
Courtesy: The Poineer
The refugee population that has migrated to the country from West Pakistan continues to live in miserable conditions. Not only are these people devoid of many basic facilities, they do not even have papers to prove they are Indians, writes GULZAR BHAT
In the immediate vicinity of Vijaypur in Jammu is a 12x12 room outside which scores of people make a beeline every day. The sparse room has a wooden table laden with piles of files, a few plastic chairs, a couple of cabinets and a squeaky ceiling fan spinning slowly. This is the office of Labha Ram Gandhi, president of the West Pakistani Refugee Action Committee, fighting for the rights of the refugees living in wretched condition for sixty five years now.
After attaining superannuation from Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry as Hawaldar, septuagenarian Labha Ram devoted himself to the cause of West Pakistani refugees who migrated to Jammu during the melee of 1947. “Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. Since I myself am a refugee I can best understand their agony and misfortune. Although I am no power-wielding man, I am working to get at least their small issues resolved by making frequent pleas to the authorities”, says Labha Ram.
About 21,000 families, 90 per cent Hindus and 10 per cent Sikhs, mostly belonging to a category ubiquitously called ‘disadvantaged’, migrated en masse from West Pakistan in the wake of the 1947 violence and have been living in deplorable conditions across the Jammu region since then. After more than 65 years of migration, they are still bereft of the civil and political rights exacerbating their living conditions.
This large chunk of refugee population is denied their basic rights in a plethora of matters including elections to State Assembly and panchayats, recruitment in State Government services and acquisition of immovable property — all because of the special constitutional status granted to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution. Section 6 of this Article recognises only those people as permanent citizens of State whose ancestors lived in Jammu & Kashmir for a minimum period of 10 years, till the cut-off date May 14, 1954.
“Because we aren’t recognised as subjects of J&K, the Permanent Residence Certificate — an important document making a person eligible for getting a Government job or owning immovable property and availing other benefits in the State — is not issued to us,” says Labha Ram.
Since West Pakistani refugees cannot acquire immovable property, they are deprived of the ‘absolute rights’ on the land allotted to them by the Government under Cabinet order number 578-C of 1954, in the wake of their migration and thus they cannot sell it or mortgage it for the purpose of loan.
For them, seeking admission in Government technical colleges or making a ration card is quite an uphill task as in both the cases, PRC is a ‘must produce’ document. “Every day, scores of people from different refugee localities visit my office with issues like denial of admission to students in technical colleges, reluctance of authorities in issuing ration cards and so on”, says Labha Ram.
Although the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has issued directions to the State Government, in 2008, to make necessary provisions for granting certain concessions including waiver of domicile requirements in providing admission to the children of West Pakistani refugees settled in the State, the concerned authorities are rather contemptuous of such directions.
Eighty-year old Dev Raj is dewy eyed as he recalls Bhishan Singh, the protagonist of Saadat Hassan Manto’s much acclaimed short story, Toba Tek Singh, when asked about his national identity. “I was just 15 when we fled our native town Shakarpur (now in Pakistan) in 1947. Sixty five years have passed since, but I am still searching for the identity I had in Shakarpur. We are the lost and right-less citizens of the world’s largest democracy”, says Dev Raj.
It is worth mentioning here that West Pakistani refugees have approximately 50,000 votes divided among 15 Assembly constituencies which are not being polled during the State legislative election owing to their non-voting right.
Most of the West Pakistani youth are unemployed, idling at home, inflicting a deleterious effect on their psychological well being and triggering a feeling of alienation amongst them.
Sapna K Sangra of Jammu University says, “It has been seen that the problem of unemployment among displaced persons is affecting their psychological health. Alcoholism is common among them and, since they know they can’t get employment in State Government, they have lost interest in education.”
A West Pakistani refugee woman, who managed to become a graduate, concedes, pleading anonymity, that after going through a cumbersome process she managed to obtain a PRC with the hope of getting a Government job in future; else the years of toil spent on her studies will go waste.
In 2007, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then Chief Minister of the State, constituted a committee under GD Wadhwa to look into the problems concerning refugees. The committee made several recommendations in their favour but were, predictably, barely implemented.
Whatever said and done — Acts, legalities, amendments, boundaries — nothing is above humanity. Time is high when we should look at refugees as humans first and take care of their development issues. Everything else will follow.
Courtesy: The Poineer
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