Muzaffarnagar Riot: Impact to Women and Children

‘We heard people shouting in our village. The Jats were creaming and saying that not one Muslim will be spared. My family and I ran for our lives. I saw two women being shot and six others being brutally killed. Two men caught hold of me and tore my clothes. I managed to escape. My little children and i hid in sugarcane fields, for two days we had nothing but water to survive on. Here i am today, it has been over a month now and i have no where to go.”( Salma from Village Laakh)

27th August 2013, clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities of the Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India have claimed 43 lives and injured 93 people. There two version of the causes of this rioting alternates between a traffic accident and eve-teasing. According to the first version, a minor traffic accident involving some youths and then spiralled out of control when it eventually took on religious overtones. In the second version, a girl from the Hindu Jat community was allegedly harassed in an Eve-teasing incident by one Muslim youth in Kawal village. This incident turned to high tension and killing each other among muslim and hindu, with mistreatment form the government. Hate speech provoked by media and other agency were also found as fuel the violence.

The fact-finding reported by 13 representative of civil societies, who conducted investigation on 8th-10th October 2013, found that lack of access to justice over their land, animal, houses etc. Now, about 1508 families are taking shelter in land belonging to the forest department. Data reported by the fact finding team that currently 10,000 internally displaced people are living in vulnerable situation in different camps. Haaji Saab under Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind is managing the camp with limitation.
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Impact to women and children

Women and children have been the worst sufferers in this human tragedy. The camps are a ghastly sight when one sees new born children, lying close to their mothers in plastic tents under the sun, with flies all over them. There is dirt, filth, human excreta verywhere specially in the Malakpur camp where there is a huge population. They have constructed a few makeshift toilets and a few hand pumps. Lack of proper toilets pose a serious threat to the safety of women and young girls specially during the nights. Pregnant women and those having their menstrual cycle are very vulnerable to diseases. Women were angry for being subjected to this pitiable plight and being reduced to living in camps. Quite a few women said that though they were poor they were happy to be living in their homes and were extremely traumatized living like refugees in camps. But they were also categorical that they cannot return to their villages.

There have been many cases of mass assault and rape although understandably very few survivors are willing to share the ghastly experience. We were told about this in both the camps by different women. They also told us that some mothers had mustered the courage and shared stories of how their daughters were raped and then burnt alive. They said that FIRs have been filed by some but they are still awaiting investigation.

Children in the camps are traumatised. There are some who did not eat for five days when they arrived because of the trauma they were in. Children and their psyche has been greatly affected by the violence. Upon interacting with two children, we asked them if they want to go back home. The kids said they do not want to as there had been a fight in their village. We told them jokingly that we also used to fight when we were their age. 

Their reply astonished us. Both, aged below 10 years said , ‘you do not know, there has been a Hindu –Muslim fight in our village. There is no way we can go back now’. There is need to start classes and some extra-curricular activities to keep these children gainfully occupied as they are likely to miss schools for many more days. The events in Lisarh are taking a toll of three-year-old Nargis, a severely malnourished child who is unable to walk because her legs lack the strength. An empty dispensary and apathetic dispensary workers increase the gravity of the condition. The workers offer little in terms of support to Nargis’ mother, advising her instead to do the rounds of the hospital at Kerana, some distance away. ‘Sunvai karo hospital mai’, a worker told Nargis’ mother and was unwilling to render any further assistance.

Education of most of the children has been affected. In Kandla we met many mothers whose children had to drop out of school as all their books had been burnt and school documents were lying in ashes in their homes. A large number of young girls, many of whom were school going were married off by parents for fear of their safety and security! Seven year old Sana , whose father was a daily wage labourer shared with us that she was studying in standard 1st in Jaiction Public School situated in Lisarh village and dreamt of

becoming a doctor when she grew up. With her studies at a halt, little does she know that her dream to serve the poor villagers around her would not be an easy task! Women complained about inadequate food and specially no milk for the children. They also complained about how difficult it was for them to spend the day without tea as they were very much used to it. *** 

The writing is reformulated from the fact finding report send my Sister Mariya Salim, as one of team member doing investigation dan taking from other resources. The complete report can be seen at here