PVS

The partition of India in 1947 created a massive refugee problem, forcing millions of people to flee across the newly created border between India and Pakistan.  The subsequent Indo-Pak wars only made the problem worse.

The Hindu-Pakistanis living in and around Jodhpur and other border towns were, before partition, lived a practically nomadic life in the Thar Desert, moving with the seasons for subsistence farming.  After partition many opted to settle in Pakistan where the land was more arable.  Then in 1965 Pakistan became a Muslim state, and the religious persecution of Hindus began and with it their migration to India. It continues today, yet despite the large number of refugees India is not a signatory of the UN Convention on Refugees of 1951 and its Protocol for Refugees of 1967, nor does the country have any precise policies on refugees.

Pak Visithapit Sangh (PVS) was started in 1999 by Hindu Singh Sodha, himself a Hindu-Pakistani refugee, to improve citizenship attainment and rehabilitation programs. In 1977 a change in the government of India granted citizenship to refugees, but over the years it had all but stopped. And then in 2004 the rules changed, instead of 5 years, they must be a resident of India for 7 before they are eligible for citizenship, and the processing fee has now reached $30,000 INR (about $600). 

In spite of these obstacles, PVS has been successful in pressuring the government to grant citizenship to over 13,000 refugees.  However there are still more living in the settlements, and more arriving every year. In addition, PVS has begun pressing the government to provide basic amenities—adequate ration cards, schools, health care facilities, electrical lines, water, sewage, etc.—to those who have been granted citizenship.

So where do we come in?

As I said before we are working on an assessment of three of the settlements.  We have created a survey card that is in the process of being filled out and then we will be conducting one-on-one, in-home interviews. Through this we hope to gain a better understanding of the current conditions and needs of the settlements and then will compare our findings with similar non-refugee populations in the area to demonstrate the inadequacy of provisions received. It is our hope that our final report will be useful in the many government meetings Hindu Singh Sodha attends on behalf of the settlements.