The Hindu : Where time is not a healer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 31, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Where time is not a healer

Contrary to expectations that the numbers in the relief camps would come down as the violence ebbed, they have been increasing.

SEVERAL DAYS after the curfew was lifted from the riot-affected areas of Ahmedabad, a few Muslims went to see the condition of their shops outside Shahpur Darwaja. They are no VVIPs and in the pre-riot days no one would have noticed their presence. But the times have changed. The message went round fast and soon a huge mob collected.

Most of those in the mob were known to the Muslims, their neighbours till recently, but it was not difficult to read the menacing look in the eyes of some of them. The Muslims realised what was coming and fled for their lives. Fortunately, a repetition of the Makarpura incident in Baroda where two persons were lynched when they went with police protection to collect their belongings from their deserted houses, was averted.

This fear of facing a threat from known persons has seen people continue to make a beeline for the relief camps. Despite being crammed into small, overcrowded rooms and tents in highly unhygienic surroundings, the inmates know they are safer than in the places they lived till February 27.

The inmates of the relief camps are not just those rendered homeless in the riots; many from the fringe areas have also fled to the safety of these camps, no longer able to trust their Hindu neighbours or the police. A few camps also shelter Hindus precisely for the same reason though not many of them have been rendered homeless.

In most of the camps, the organisers' estimates went haywire because contrary to the expectation that the numbers would come down as the violence ebbed they have been increasing. Those who had been in hiding during the curfew made their way to the relief camps at the first opportunity.

According to the Revenue Minister, Haren Pandya, about 101 relief camps in various parts of the States house about 98,000 inmates, a number which has swelled from about 30,000 in the first few days after the rioting. But the organisers of many of the camps claimed that the Government estimate was far less than the reality and that the actual number was way above one lakh.

While the initial problems of shortage of food or medical aid have been taken care of, largely due to the efforts of voluntary organisations, hygiene still remains the biggest problem.

In Ahmedabad and in most other cities, local authorities have set up toilets or provided mobile toilet vans, but the efforts still fall far short of the requirements considering that there is one toilet for an average of 400 people. The inmates still do not want to leave the camps and return home, at least not immediately.

For many, what was once their home has been razed to the ground while others do not feel the conditions are conducive enough to return. Other than providing relief to the inmates, most of whom are yet to receive the first instalment of cash doles, the State Government is yet to address the main problem of rehabilitating them.

Compounding the situation is the fact that many of them want to be rehabilitated in "safer areas", in minority clusters where they can feel safe. There is not enough land available to rehabilitate them all in such areas but till the problem is resolved, the camps will continue despite the inhuman conditions. — M.D.

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