Gujarat: Riot, rehabilitation: Govt wakes up to NHRC call

(Ahmedabad Newsline
June 18, 2007)


PEOPLE LIVING IN COLONIES FOR RIOT-HIT GET RATION CARD, VOTER IDS; ALSO GET POWER & WATER CONNECTION
Riot, rehabilitation: Govt wakes up to NHRC call
Express News Service

Vadodara, June 17: DEDKI Mehmood Yusuf, a victim of the 2002 post-Godhra carnage living in a rehabilitation colony near Ranipura in the Panchmahals, finally got his ration and voter ID card on Friday after three long years, thanks to a directive from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Stirred by a recent communiqué from the NHRC, the State government seems to have suddenly woken up to the needs of the 5,000-odd families living in 69 rehabilitation colonies in Gujarat. From electricity to voter ID cards, below poverty line (BPL) cards to job cards, the residents from these colonies are finally in the government’s eye. All these due to the efforts of the Aantarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti (AVHRS), which has been organising rallies involving all the families of the relief colonie. AVHRS acted as a liaison between the victims and the NHRC.

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On Sunday, the AVHRS held a public meeting of representatives from all over the State to discuss the progress and their next action plan.

It was on February 1 this year that the AVHRS held their first community meeting in Ahmedabad. AVHRS convener Yusuf Sheikh said, “The people in these colonies had been suffering from neglect for too long, so we congregated in Ahmedabad and prepared a charter of demands to be sent to the NHRC.”

Since then, the AVHRS has formed committees in each of the 69 colonies, which meet frequently to discuss their problems and forward their requests to the State government. Also, each committee has to have a woman on it without which the AVHRS refuses to recognise them.

Muzaffar Ali, living in the Ranipur colony, now proudly displays his job card and voter ID card. “We had no identity in the State after the carnage. Now we can apply for work and even vote in the upcoming elections,” said a delighted Ali. Similarly, Sulaiman Diwan’s colony, set up in 2003 in Palej in Bharuch, got their long-awaited electricity and water connection only last week after a long battle against Government officials.

Even after the success of the AVHRC, Yusuf Sheikh’s work is far from complete. “Now that things are moving along, we have to make sure all the families are looked after equally,” he says, adding that on October 2, they would be organising another as part of the International Non-Violence Day.

“We welcome the UN decision for marking the Non-Violence Day and we aim to celebrate it with a massive rally involving all the colonies in the State to promote a sense of brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims,” Sheikh said.

NHRC Gives Notice To Gujarat Govt On Internally Displaced

9 May 2007

Dear All,
This is a major victory. NHRC has sent a strong notice to the Chief Secretary , Gujarat Govt to act immediately and provide all basic amenities to the Internally displaced.

Congratulating everyone who has been part of the struggle and thanking everyone specially the media who supported the struggle . Last five days the local administration has been running, collectors visiting colonies of the internally displaced. This is a fantastic example of what a united struggle can do.

Formation of AVHRK in all districts- December 2006, January 2007
State Convention -Feb 1 2007
Public Hearing in Delhi- April 4, 2004
Meetings with NHRC, Minority Commission, Election Commission- April 5, 2007
Detailed survey of every displaced family- in process May 4-12, 2007

Yusuf Shaikh
Gagan Sethi
Farha Naqvi
Shabnam Hashmi

on behalf of the Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti

Election Commission promises voter ID cards for riot displaced

(Ahmedabad Newsline
April 06, 2007)

EC promises voter ID cards for riot displaced
Express News Service

Ahmedabad, April 5: The Election Commission has promised to ensure that each of the eligible voters, living in the resettlement colonies for `internally displaced persons’, will be issued photo identity cards at their present place of residence after a survey by a special team.

This assurance was given to a delegation of the Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti (AVHRS) led by its convener Yusuf Sheikh, ANHAD representative Shabnam Hashmi and Jan Vikas representative Gagan Sethi called on Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi and Navin Chawla as also Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat Vinod Babbar on Thursday.

While asking AVHRS to provide as comprehensive list of eligible voters, election commissioners instructed Babbar to co-ordinate and insure implementation at the earliest.

Talking to Express Newsline over phone, Hashmi said that the delegation explained in detail the problems faced by the internally displaced in exercising their franchise since they were ordinary residence of the displaced colonies and their original documents had been all destroyed during the 2002 riot, hence they were unable to cast their vote in the last State election and subsequent local body elections.

Hashmi said that the delegation also met the newly appointed chairperson of National Human rights Commission Ram Babu and apprised him of the present situation of the internally displaced as well as the ongoing human rights violations in Gujarat against the minorities.

The AVHRS, she said, gave a charter of demands and requested the intervention of NHRC in ensuring the security of the minorities and appropriate rehabilitation as per earlier directives of NHRC.

She said that NHRC chief assured the delegation that he would take it up on a top priority. She said that some members of the delegation gave their personal testimonies of the continued violence and discrimination by the state administration.

The delegation, according to her, also met the chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities Hamid Ansari and urged him to take forward the unfinished task of ensuring a special package for the internally displaced which the NCM has recommended in its report to the Prime Minister, which was demanded by the Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti and endorsed by an eminent jury including an NCM member on first February 1, 2007 at the Convention of Internally Displaced at Ahmedabad which was attended by 3,500 internally displaced.

She said Ansari expressed concern at the ongoing discrimination against the minorities in Gujarat and assured the delegation that NCM will take up with appropriate authorities the demand of a special package for the internally displaced.

Response to the Gujarat Relief Package Announced by Central Government

Press Note
March 23, 2007
Response to the Gujarat Relief Package Announced by Central Government
As recognition of the continued suffering of the survivors of the Gujarat carnage in 2002, and as a statement of reparation, the Central Government's announcement of a relief and rehabilitation package of 106.57 crores, though modest, is long overdue and welcome. Regrettably the package focuses on ex-gratia payments for those who died, on injury compensation, and to a lesser extent on compensation for damage to residential and some commercial properties. We urge the Central Government to expand the scope of the package to bring into its framework the rights to relief, rehabilitation, and reparation for the thousands who still remain internally displaced due to the violence in 2002, and who have really been in the forefront of this latest chapter in the struggle for recognition.
In recent months, the survivors of the Gujarat carnage have been bringing to public attention the continued internal displacement of over 25,000 Gujarati Muslims, who still live scattered across 7 districts in Gujarat in approximately 69 shabby colonies entirely constructed by NGOs. They live without any amenities or livelihood opportunities because they cannot return to their homes. Yet, their existence continues to be denied by the State Government.
A complaint seeking relief and reparations for these 5,000 families was filed with the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in August 2006. In October 2006 the NCM visited 17 of these colonies. The NCM's report finding the State Government guilty of blatant neglect was a welcome sign that at least at the Centre there was some recognition of the rights of this internally displaced population. The NCM report had made the following key recommendations:
The NCM would like to make three sets of recommendations to the State Government and Central Government to improve the lot of the residents of the make-shift camps. These include (1) Basic amenities and livelihood issues (2) Central Government Economic Package (3) National Policy on Rehabilitation and Internally Displaced due to violence.

1 Basic Amenities and Livelihood in Rehabilitation Colonies

Basic amenities must be provided in the camps of displaced victims. These would cover provisions of safe drinking water, street lights, approach roads etc. This should be done by the State Government.

Government of India should agree for a period of five years until they continue to live in the camps, whichever is earlier, all the inhabitants of such camps should be given BPL ration cards without going through the formalities laid down by the Government for the issue of such cards. Similarly, widows should be allowed to claim their pension even if they have not applied within two years or even if they have sons above the age of 18 years.

The State Government should prepare a special economic package for those displaced by the violence with special focus on livelihood issues. For the self employed special efforts should be made to provide inputs like easy credits, raw material and marketing assistance. We strongly believe that this is a vital element in the rehabilitation scenario and that for it to be successfully implemented, NGOs should be involved in it.

Wherever possible the State should take advantage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme to cover able bodied people in these camps and give them employment.

Government of India should return the amount of Rs. 19.10 crores given back by the Government of Gujarat. The State Government should be asked to cover more beneficiaries under the schemes in an attempt to utilise the entire sum.

There should be a monitoring committee consisting of representatives of State Government and Civil Society, which will be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the schemes described above are properly implemented.

2 A Special Economic Package for Rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Muslim families in Gujarat

There is an urgent need for the Central Government to design and implement an immediate special economic package for rehabilitation of internally displaced Muslim families in Gujarat. The package must include a set of inputs that would address the totality of livelihood concerns. In particular attention must be paid to availability of credit, raw material and marketing support, where necessary, with the help of NGOs.

3 National Policy on Internal Displaced due to Violence

There is a need to design a national policy on internal displacement due to the violence. Populations displaced due to sectarian, ethnic or communal violence should not be left to suffer for years together due to the lack of a policy and absence of justiciable frame-work of entitlements.

The preamble of the new Draft National Rehabilitation Policy 2006, (NRP 2006) which incorporates recommendations made by the National Advisory Council, provides a precedent and sensitive understanding of how displacement due to any reason affects people. It describes displacement in the following terms, “… displacement of people, depriving them of their land, livelihood and shelter, restricting their access to traditional resource basis and uprooting them from their socio-cultural environment. These have traumatic psychological and socio-cultural consequences on the displaced population…” However, NRP 2006 pertains only to land displacement due to development imperatives. When displacement takes place due to mass violence, entailing loss of life, property, family and loved ones and the total destruction of the fabric of a socio-economic and cultural community, then the rehabilitation of the internally displaced populations calls for a new framework of understanding.

When displacement takes place under conditions of fear and under constant direct threat of violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, the trauma and conditions under which survivors face the future is considerably worsened. Further, when the threat of violence is perceived to be continuing (as it currently is in the State of Gujarat), in the absence of justice and in a situation of discrimination and exclusion, the protection of people’s constitutional rights can only be sought through a national policy which clearly lays out a non-negotiable framework of entitlements. Any national policy on internal displacement due to violence must be designed to include provisions for immediate compensation and rehabilitation. A national policy on internal displacement due to violence must further take into account the displaced population’s aspirations of ‘return to their home’ and make provisions to facilitate the return, if it is possible under conditions of safety and security, and to restore the displaced families to their original conditions of living.


A national policy on internal displacement due to violence must also lay down specified time frames for implementation of a rehabilitation plan, as well as include an effective grievance redresal and monitoring mechanism.

In addition, activists also made representations to the Prime Minister seeking a package of rehabilitation for the internally displaced. Further, in the last six months internally displaced people from the 69 colonies have organised themselves into the Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti (Committee of the Internally Displaced) to press for their demands. The Central's Government's package comes in response to all these efforts. As such we urge the Government to fully implement the recommendations of the NCM's report.


Yusuf Shaikh - 09898990823
(Convenor, Antarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti, Gujarat)
Gagan Sethi, Janvikas, Ahmedabad- 09824023209
Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad, Delhi- 9811807558
Farah Naqvi, Writer & Activist, Delhi- 9811105521