AFTERMATH OF 2002 ANTI-MUSLIM MASSACRE IN GUJARAT

Five years after Godhra and the pogrom by Dionne Bunsha (The Hindu)

"There are still 81 relief camps with around 30,000 refugees across Gujarat. The campsites do not have basic amenities like water or electricity, even though its residents are paying municipal taxes. In Modasa, refugees pay Rs.30 a month for water from a local contractor. 'There are no gutters, no place to wash clothes, so fights break out often. But at least we are safe,' Mumtazben Sheikh, a widow, told me.

[...]

"Muslims have been pushed into ghettos. Juhapura, Ahmedabad's biggest ghetto, has a population of over 300,000 people but no civic amenities. Only recently, it was made part of the city's municipal area. Many elite Muslims — judges, doctors, lawyers, businessmen — have been forced to move to Juhapura. No one in a `Hindu area' will sell a flat to a Muslim, even if he or she is willing to pay a premium. There is not a single bank in Juhapura, not a single State transport bus passes through here.

"After the 2002 violence, many other mini-ghettos emerged in cities and even small towns like Modasa. Places where refugees have been settled are now growing into Muslim colonies. In Ahmedabad, some survivors of the worst massacres of 2002 live on the edge of the city's dumping ground. They are living on the margins amid the smoke from smouldering garbage, crows circling above, and fumes from the small workshops nearby."

See also:

No bail for Godhra accused by Teesta Setalvad: "Eighty-four Muslims Denied Personal Liberty in the Godhra Case for Nearly Six Years"

And see:

anti-caste article: THE 2002 GUJARAT MASSACRE