report<\/a>\u00a0by Human Rights Watch, \u201cMany Muslim IDPs have been living in overcrowded tent camps, others in \u201csemi-permanent\u201d structures, and some have had no shelter or basic aid at all, in full knowledge of the Burmese authorities. Meanwhile, the relatively few sites populated by displaced Arakanese have been well provided for by local and national government programs, and are supported by national TV and radio fundraising drives that secure donations from Burmese society only for displaced Arakanese.\u201d<\/p>\nAyesha says, \u201cBuddhists are free but Muslims are not.\u201d After that, 12 families including Mariam and Ayesha\u2019s collected some money to pay a middleman to ensure a safe passage to Jammu. It took them over two months via Bangladesh to reach here in February 2013.<\/p>\n
Mariam butts in, \u201cI learned Hindi in flat two weeks. It is in some ways similar to our language. And we also have different dialects. Just like in India.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know the language, we are very different from the Muslims here but our biggest achievement in the last five years here is that we have managed to stay alive,\u201d says Ayesha.<\/p>\n
Veeru walks in and says in a roaring voice, \u201cWill you women work also or keep talking?\u201d<\/p>\n
The women and young girls nod and continue to work. He walks out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo which camp is better? He uses force and pays you less,\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Indians rant too much but at least no one has yet attacked us physically, unlike Myanmar,\u201d says Mariam with a smile.<\/p>\n
Ayesha says, \u201cDon\u2019t say bad things about Indians. You should be sent back to Burma.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mariam replies, \u201cDon\u2019t tell me that you don\u2019t crave the curry with bamboo and prawns which you haven\u2019t eaten in six years. I know you want to go back home. See, see. Your mouth is watering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayesha lifts her head with a beaming smile on her lips. Everyone bursts into laughter.<\/p>\n
III.\u00a0Companion<\/p>\n
When Bilkis Jaan, 60, fled from her village, Bohmu Para in Maungdaw district, in June 2013, Ghona, her 12-year-old, brown- and black-furred bitch, cried to death.<\/p>\n
Ghona was her constant companion for ten years. She was a few-months-old puppy when she adopted Bilkis. Rehmat Ali, Bilkis\u2019s 45-year-old husband, had just passed away. He was a skilled boatsman and ferried people in the Kaladan River. It is the fifth-largest river in the world to remain unfragmented by dams in its catchment. Over the years, the water got polluted, with India and Myanmar trying to connect seaports of both the countries through the Kaladan Multi Nodal Transit Transport System. This caused an infection in his legs, amputation and death within a few months of that.<\/p>\n
Bilkis had two daughters, Safiyah and Shagufta. To raise them, she took up work as a farm labourer. That\u2019s where Ghona found her. \u201cThe owners grew peas and chillis, better quality than the ones you get in Jammu. Ghona would stay with me like she was a part of my body,\u201d she says \u2013 dig when she would plough, cover the pit with mud when Bilkis would try to fill it.<\/p>\n
The next year, Essar, an Indian oil company, started exploring natural gas options in Sittwe and Maungdaw area in the state. The area falls under what is called L Block, an oil exploration circle. As part of an agreement signed in 2005, Essar along with the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise was to do drilling test wells in the area. Over two million acres have been seized from minorities in Burma for such projects by India and China. The farm patch on which Bilkis was employed was also taken away.<\/p>\n
She then took up a job at a butcher shop. At the end of each day, she was given a few pieces of meat and some money as a monthly allowance. Ghona would follow her there too.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike Indians, we cannot survive with just vegetables. We need meat every day. Even the fish that you get in India is dead. We used to catch fish fresh from the pond and the river and cook it. It used to taste so much better.\u00a0 Ghona would sit quietly next to me when I would catch fish in return for a fresh fish at the end of the exercise,\u201d she says. She worked at the shop for five years.<\/p>\n
In 2011, the butcher shop was set on fire on accusations of selling pork by Kaman Muslims, an ethnic Muslim group recognised by the Burmese government as one of the seven ethnic groups of Rakhine, who are acknowledged as Burmese citizens and hold national identity cards. Consuming pork is prohibited in Islam. After the onslaught against the Rohingya Muslims started in Myanmar, several Kaman Muslims have also been targeted by Buddhists for sharing the same faith. \u201cThis led to conflict, insecurity and a competition to prove who were better Muslims,\u201d says Bilkis.<\/p>\n
While she was still doing odd jobs to make ends meet, within a year, in 2012, a mob of Buddhists from Arakan along with the Burmese military attacked her village. They entered the house and caught hold of 15-year-old Safiyah. \u201cThey did the same as what was done to several of her Rohingya sisters. We were in the same room when it happened. I asked her not to resist as two men, one after another, thrust themselves over her. Tears flowed from her eyes as she stared at me. They would have done the same to my other daughter had I tried to save Safiyah. Ghona kept barking, tied in one corner of the same room. The army guys kept asking me to shut Ghonu up or they will shoot her,\u201d Bilkis recounts in a matter-of-fact tone.<\/p>\n
Rohingya have little access to healthcare in Myanmar. In a vitiated environment, getting Safiyah treated medically was impossible. Her private parts bled profusely for days and she succumbed to her injuries three days later.<\/p>\n
A humanitarian aid agency came to the village the next day and took away all the Rohingya to a camp. \u201cThey refused to allow Ghona in the truck. She watched as we got on to it. Barked and barked and then followed us for a full one hour before the swampy mud patch slowed her down while the truck raced away. I lost my body part of 12 years,\u201d says a teary-eyed Bilkis.<\/p>\n
Bilkis and Shagufta came to Jammu three months later to stay with relatives, where 17-year-old Shagufta was married off to her first cousin, Saif.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In September 2017, a carcass of a dead cow was found next to their shanty. Twelve people along with Saif were picked up by the cops at the Channi Himmat police station in South Jammu. Members of the BJP, a Hindu nationalist political party, accused the detained of consuming beef and hurting religious sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do people get by fighting over meat. Pork in Myanmar and beef in India when millions have already been killed over religion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Bilkis now works in a butcher shop next to her camp where they supply fresh fish, prawns, and mutton to the four Rohingya settlements in the vicinity. Her new companion is a ginger cat named Jhontu, who loves fish.<\/p>\n
Neha Dixit<\/a>\u00a0is an independent journalist based out of New Delhi. She covers politics, gender and social justice in South Asia.<\/p>\nPublished by The Wire on March 25, 2021<\/p>\n
Original link: https:\/\/thewire.in\/rights\/rohingya-refugee-women-jammu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After recent arrests, hundreds of Rohingya refugees have started fleeing relief camps in Jammu. Here are the stories of three women who lived in these camps. Neha Dixit On March 7 this year, close to 160 Rohingya refugees living in Jammu were\u00a0detained in a sub-jail. According to officials, they were sent to a \u201cholding centre\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[474,104,103],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Those Rohingya Women in the Jammu Camps - Neha Dixit<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n