Conflict-Related Displacement: A Huge Development Challenge for India

In Serfanguri relief camp in Kokrajhar, several tents were erected, but they were inadequate to properly house the roughly 2,000 people who had arrived there on Dec. 23, 2014. This single tent houses 25 women and children. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPSBy Priyanka BorpujariKOKRAJHAR, India, Jan 29 2015 (IPS)The tarpaulin sheet, when stretched and tied to bamboo poles, is about the length and breadth of a large SUV. Yet, about 25 women and children have been sleeping beneath these makeshift shelters at several relief camps across Kokrajhar, a district in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam.The inhabitants of these camps – about 240,000 of them across three other districts of Assam – fled from their homes after 81 people were killed in what now seems like a well-planned attack.The Asian Centre for Human Rights says the situation is reaching a full-blown humanitarian crisis, representing one of the largest conflict-related waves of displacement in India.It has turned a mirror on India’s inability to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and suggests that continued violence across the country will pose a major challenge to meeting the basic development needs of a massive population.Hunger is constant in the refugee camps, with meagre rations of rice, lentils, cooking oil and salt falling short of most families’ basic needs. Women are forced to walk long distances to fetch firewood for woodstoves. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPSAppalling conditionsOn the evening...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Aid Armed Conflicts Asia-Pacific Crime & Justice Development & Aid Editors' Choice Education Environment Featured Food & Agriculture Gender Global Governance Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Migration Source Type: news