The Predicament of Women Refugees in India

 The Predicament of Women Refugees in India 

A refugee is defined as 'a person forced to emigrate for political reasons,' according to the definition available in Merriam-Webster. However, being a refugee is not merely a word but rather a predicament of being stateless. According to the 1951 United Nations Human Rights Council, 'a refugee is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, and membership of a particular social group or political opinion.' Hence, any person who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence is known as a refugee. The term 'refugee' is derogatory, implying homelessness, vulnerability, and alienation, and giving a status of destitution to people who had to seek asylum for survival. Asylum seekers, especially women, who are the most vulnerable group against war crimes and crimes against humanity, have already witnessed extremity.

In 2014, data revealed that hundreds of refugee women faced sexual harassment in their home country as well as their host country. After the military takeover in Myanmar, women had to live according to the whims and fancies of the soldiers. Women in Myanmar faced sexual exploitation by soldiers and were forcefully married to them. They lived in constant fear of systematic rapes, gender-based violence, border trafficking, and forced labour. Torture, imprisonment, and systematic rapes were common tools that these women faced until they fled to India.

India has been a host for refugees for decades. The country has provided shelter to refugees from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tibet, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Pakistan following civil wars, natural calamities, and military takeovers in their home countries. New Delhi, the capital of the country, has always been a hotspot for refugees. The city is filled with victims of crimes against humanity seeking asylum in slum dwellings. Despite being one of the largest hosts of refugees in Southeast Asia, India has no constitutional or legal provisions to protect them. India is not a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention and also does not have any domestic legislation for the protection of refugees. The government provides basic healthcare facilities to refugees through government hospitals, but this remains inadequate for the treatment of women who escaped war-like situations and are suffering from nutritional deficiencies. Refugee women are not subjected to the nutritional and healthcare programs run by the government and suffer greatly due to the lack of menstrual and maternal healthcare facilities. Refugee women are one of the most vulnerable groups exposed to depression, schizophrenia, and other mental health disorders with no resources to avail treatment for these problems.

A newspaper article in 2020 narrated the story of a Congolese refugee woman living alone in Delhi, who was harassed and groped on her way to the hospital for her regular dialysis procedure. Refugee women often have to change their appearance and hide their cultural identity to safeguard themselves against the crimes practised on them by natives. They fear their culture perishing as their offspring lose ties with their culture and language during the process of resettlement in a new country. As they try to navigate their life in this new alienated country, these women remain unemployed or fall into the informal sector of employment, which further leads to a vicious cycle of workplace harassment, unequal pay, and language barriers. They carry their children to dangerous construction sites as they have no reliable person to guard their children while they work to earn a meagre income. Enrolling children in schools also seems impossible for them due to high educational expenses and multiple reports of refugee children facing bullying in schools. Government schools are available for children, but the medium of instruction remains Hindi, making it hard for the children to grasp anything.

Although precise statistics are not available, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) currently recognizes the presence of 8,800 Burmese refugees in Delhi, while local civil society groups, refugee organizations, and international non-governmental organizations estimate the number to be between 10,000 – 11,500, and a further 70,000 undocumented refugees in the northeastern state of Mizoram. The true numbers of those in distress are undoubtedly higher. In Delhi, women refugees are aided by the UNHCR and its local Implementing Partners (IPs), Don Bosco Ashalayam (DBA), Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and the Socio-Legal Information Centre (SLIC). These IPs facilitate refugees’ access to health, education (YMCA), employment and training (DBA), and legal services (SLIC).

In India, refugees fall under the Foreigners Order of 1946, which grants the government the power to restrict movement, limit employment, and mandate to refoule (return) refugees, actions which are barred by the Refugee Convention. Considered 'alien' according to the Constitution of India and the Foreigners Act, refugees are nonetheless granted the right to religious freedom, nondiscrimination, personal liberty, and freedom of housing, and are granted identity and travel cards. Many refugees dream of settlement in developed countries such as the USA and Canada, but these dreams remain futile because of the long waiting lines and the conventions and procedures of the host country.

Within the refugee community in Delhi, organizations such as the Burmese Women Union (BWU), Burmese Women Delhi (BWD), and the Women Rights and Welfare Association Burma (WRWAB) play a more active role. These organizations are community-based networks that provide advocacy support, intervention in cases of gender-based violence, interpretation services, conduct research and discussion sessions, and liaise with Indian civil society groups to conduct workshops and training in the fields of women’s rights, refugee rights, human rights, and raising awareness of health, legal, and employment concerns. BWD, for instance, is supported by Hope Adelaide, an international NGO that funds its monthly workshops and programs. A woman refugee explained during an interview that women had no conception of what women’s rights were until they came to Delhi and were exposed to these new ideas.

It is high time that women refugees are granted a respectful status in the country. Governments and NGOs should come together for the resettlement of these women and free them from various indignities that they suffer.

 ~ Aneesha Malu