rohingyas in india | SabrangIndia

How a hostel in Delhi is keeping hopes of Rohingya students alive

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 05:55:33 +0000

Sitting cross-legged in a small room, Fayaz, Hussain and Saifful are poring over their textbooks as they prepare for their annual exams scheduled in April this year.

By Inder Bisht, TwoCircles.net

For the last one year, the three Rohingya teenagers along with seven other community members have been living in a two-BHK apartment in Delhi’s congested Jamia Nagar under the Hostel Literacy Project, run by 23-year-old Ali Johar, a fellow Rohingya.

Handpicked out of hundreds of schoolgoing Rohingya children from around the country, these boys stand a much better chance to clear their exams compared to their peers in the refugee camps thanks to the efforts of Johar.

The food, transportation, and stationery expenses at the hostel are borne by Johar through donations from sponsors.

“The hostel provides an encouraging environment to study which we often lack in a refugee camp,” says Saifful.

The brunt of forced migration from Myanmar has been felt by Rohingya children who have lost the opportunity to be educated.

“Those Rohingya children who finished their primary education in Myanmar are facing difficulty in adjusting to Indian education system due to a different language of instruction and also because education here is more advanced than Myanmar,” says Zohar.

“Only 25 Rohingya children study in ninth and tenth standards in India while only 13 students are studying in 12th standard in India,” says Johar, adding, “Only two Rohingyas are presently studying in Indian colleges.”

Around 20,000 Rohingya are currently living in India according to the UNHCR while the government pegs the number higher.

The students staying in the hostel in Jamia Nagar had little hope of a good future until about a year ago, but now they dream of a respectable profession in India or in their native country after finishing their graduation.

Some of the students are interested in starting their own business while others want to become doctors. One of the students wants to become a journalist to better represent his community’s issues.

“Often, other people raise the issues of our community. I think that someone from the community can highlight its problems in a better way,” says 17-year-old Hussain.

A quiet and shy science student, Fayyaz, 18, is all geared up for his Board exams scheduled for later this year for which he also takes private tuition in Physics.

After some persuasion, he opened up about his life and said that he had arrived in Hyderabad from Myanmar in 2017 after his village Renohali was engulfed in ethnic violence.

He worked in Hyderabad as a waiter initially and then tried to enrol in the local schools. However, due to insufficient documents, he couldn’t get admission in the 11th standard.

One day, Fayaz heard about the hostel programme for Rohingya students in Delhi which promised free accommodation. He applied for it and got selected.

“Earlier, I used to just hope to survive somehow but thanks to this hostel now I can dream of achieving my goal of becoming a doctor,” says Fayaz.

The idea to start the hostel struck to Johar in 2015 when he was working as an interpreter at the UNHCR office in Delhi.

“We did a survey of our community children in India and found out that only two of them were going to school for secondary education although around 80 such children had completed their primary education in Myanmar,” says Johar.

First, they opened a hostel in Vikaspuri in 2016 however due to financial constraint it had to be shut after three months.

Then Johar met a person at a refugee camp while he was donating food packets to the people.

“I asked him to help the Rohingya children for their education as education would last longer than food packets. Convinced by my argument, he gave one of his apartments to us to move in,” said Johar.

Shortly after, an NGO came forward and offered to take care of the grocery bills of the hostel.

Johar then crowd-sourced the funds for transportation, stationary and other expenses to run the hostel with the help of students from St. Stephens College, Delhi, and from Jindal and Ashoka University in December 2017 and successfully managed the hostel for one year.

In January 2019, however, the NGO which had been providing funds for grocery items for the hostel backed out citing a dearth of funds causing uncertainty over the future of the hostel and its residents. “The students are preparing for their annual exam in April but we have funds for this month only. I am worried if I don’t manage to collect the money all the efforts of us could go to waste,” Johar rues.

Most of the Rohingya children in India have enrolled into National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) where classes take place during the weekend. However, due to their financial condition, they are unable to afford tuition classes and clear their exams.

In Delhi, a non-profit-organisation Don Bosca in partnership with UNHCR runs five-day-a-week tuition classes for refugee students which the Rohingya students term crucial to clear their annual exams.

However, the classes are held only in the national capital leaving the refugees in other parts of the country in a disadvantageous position.

In the absence of a proper educational framework for the children of Rohingya refugees in India, thousands of children fritter away into child labour with few of them are even gravitating towards criminal activities in the absence of proper guidance and opportunities.

“A 16-17-year-old teenager who has studied only till fifth or sixth standard in Myanmar and is unable to study in India has nothing else to do but to work as a labourer or rag-picker here. We have noticed that some of these kids have become drug addicts and commit petty crimes like pick-pocketing and theft to sustain their addiction,” says Johar.

Courtesy: Twocircles.net

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Rohingya refugees lose all they saved in last five years to Delhi fire

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 05:55:06 +0000

New Delhi: About 44 huts of Rohingya refugees caught fire in Kalindi Kunj area of Delhi on Sunday, April 15, leading to minor burn injuries to two persons besides reducing the shelters to ashes along with a complete loss of household materials.

The fire in Rohingya slum in South-East Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj reduced 44 huts to ashes. (Photo by: Raqib Hameed Naik)

The fire which started in the early hours of Sunday morning also consumed a makeshift mosque and a madrasa.

“The fire started at 3 am in the morning when everyone was asleep,” says Shabir Alam, 37 a Rohingya. He says that the fire started near the Toilets close to the makeshift mosque. “That time everyone was running to save their lives. I took my 5 children to safety and when I returned everything was on fire,” he told TwoCircles.net.

Shabir Alam, 37 a Rohingya refugee feeds his child inside a temporary relief camp. (Photo by: Raqib Hameed Naik)

The shanties were made of bamboo and polythene. “It is the reason why everything caught fire so quickly. The fire brigade arrived half an hour later. By then everything was turned into ashes,” he adds.

Fayaz Ahmed, 31 lost everything to the fire. He had saved 80,000 rupees in last five years after toiling hard by collecting scrap.

“I have lost everything. My house, money, utensils. I don’t even have clothes to wear. I had to ask NGO people to buy one shirt for me,” Fayaz told Twocircles.net.

A civil defense official walks past the burnt structure. (Photo by: Raqib Hameed Naik)

The fire has affected 44 refugee families consisting of 230 members who mainly work as hawkers, laborers, rickshaw pullers.

According to Fayazul Kalam, a Rickshaw puller, it will take him years to rebuild back what he has lost in the fire. “For five years, I worked day and night and built a house, bought utensils, clothes for my two kids and wife, but today I lost everything. This was my second home along with the one in Burma,” he said.

Various Non-Government organizations are providing food and clothes to the fire affected families. The members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind are also camping at the spot and surveying the families who need help.

Fire affected families inside the temporary shelter. (Photo by: Raqib Hameed Naik)

“We will make fireproof tents for them and provide them with utensils, clothes, and fans. The work will start in a day or two. As of now, we are surveying what else can be done for them,” Ghayur Ahmad, Jamiat member who is accessing the situation at Kalindi Kunj told TwoCirlces.net.

In last few years, the Rohingya slums across the country have seen various incidents of fire turning their shanties into ashes. In a similar incident in April 2017, five huts of Rohingya refugees caught fire in Nangali gaon, Nooh of Mewat in Haryana, leading to one person being severely burnt. In November 2016 more than 80 huts belonging to the refugees were reduced to ashes leading to the death of four refugees in Narwal area of Jammu.

The belongings of refugees consumed in the fire. (Photo by: Raqib Hameed Naik)

Last year on August 19, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a circular asking all states to identify and deport ‘illegal’ Rohingyas.

“Illegal migrants are more vulnerable to getting recruited by terrorist organizations. Infiltration from the Rakhine State of Myanmar into Indian Territory, especially in the recent years, besides being a burden on the limited resources of the country also aggravates the security challenges posed to the country,” the document read.

The Supreme Court is presently hearing a petition filed by the Rohingya.

Fayaz Ahmed, 31 a hawker who lost his house, utensils, clothes and 80,000 rupees in the fire. (Photo by: Raqib Hameed Naik)

At present, there are more than 40,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees living in four states: Jammu, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi majority of whom are living in Jammu.

Thousands of Rohingyas fled Myanmar during a spike of violence some five years ago. They arrived in India with hopes for peace and security. At first, the refugees were well-received by the locals, but the hostility has gradually increased over the past few years.

Courtesy: Two Circles

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