25 die of cold in India riot camps

MEERUT: Along with the elections, those consigned to riot camps in Muzaffarnagar in August 2013 have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves in the bitter cold engulfing northern India at this time of year. 

Ahead of the general elections of 2014, the over 50,000 people who had fled their villages to escape the communal violence to settle in these camps were considered captive vote banks. Politicians regularly visited to seek votes and make promises of rehabilitating them at the time, but this winter, 25 people have quietly succumbed to the cold and hardly anyone seems to know or care. 

TOI which visited Muzaffarnagar to take stock of the situation reports that the camps there continue to house a little over 3,500 riot refugees. Shamli, it says has another 700 refugees. Grieving relatives of the 25 latest victims of the winter chill reportedly struggled to find as much as a decent burial place. 

Mohd Irfan at the relief camp at Loi village says, last year, the situation was quite different. He would sit outside his tent and count the number of politicians visiting those made homeless in the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar that killed 62 people in August 2013 and displaced thousands. 

The 35 year old Irfan says, what was a poll-issue during elections has now been conveniently forgotten. “thand toh abhi bhi utni hi hai, bas ab neta log nahi aate.” (It’s as cold now as it was last year, just that no politicians come here anymore), he said.

The disinterest in those still struggling at the relief camps is reflected by the level of ignorance and apathy in the district administration. Indramani Tripathi, additional district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar, claimed there were hardly any camps left in the area. “All the people at the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar were rehabilitated by December 2013. Moreover, not a single person has died in Muzaffarnagar in these winters,” he told TOI. 

Asked why the district administration has not been able to provide even basic amenities to the riot victims, Tripathi said, “Rehabilitation is a process. It takes time. A Rs 300 crore-project under Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP) will be sanctioned in the coming financial year. That will take care of the electricity and water connections for the rehabilitated people.” 

However, NGO Astitva, which has been working for the rehabilitation of the riot victims, said the chill had begun to claim lives from the end of October last year. 

3-year-old Simran who died in Loi on November 5, 2014, leaving wailing parents behind, is one of many victims. Originally a resident of riot-hit Faguna, Yakub, Simran’s father, said, “We tried to keep her warm and fed her. She survived the 2013 winter, thanks to the help which came from the government, but this year she gave up on the struggle.” 

Minimum temperatures in Muzaffarnagar are reported to have gone down to as low as 2.5 degrees Celsius. Coupled with a severe shortage of fuel, food and medicines, the flimsy tents, many of them with holes in them, haven’t been able to protect the refugees much. Their best hope has been to huddle together at night and pray for the next day to be warmer. 

Crouched inside a tent in Shahpur, Jahid, who lost his wife Zarina in November last year, said, “Sometimes I feel it would have been better had we died in the riots. At least we would have been away from all this ruckus of compensation. We lost our dignity long back fighting for the money which the government says is due to us.” 

Maqsood, a riot victim in Budhana, alleged that getting their hands on the compensation amount of Rs 5 lakh announced by the Akhilesh Yadav government has been an excruciating struggle. “Many people have not got it till now. I, too, have not got any compensation. Because of that I still have to live in a tent. My wife, Pachho, died of the cold. I don’t know when I will get the money.” 

Those who have managed to get the compensation and built small houses in villages nearby don’t have electricity and water connections. Jaan Mohammed, who fled from Shamli to Budhana, said, “We have to indulge in katiyamari (getting unauthorised power through a hooked, extended wire from an electricity source). What can we do when the government doesn’t help us? Are we supposed to live in the dark?” 

Rehana Adeeb, director, Astitva, said, “It is sad that the government doesn’t consider these places as camps. The administration has its own perspective and tries to keep a clean image in front of the media. But the reality is that these camps exist and the people there are striving for rehabilitation and survival.” –

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