Exhibition shows haunting images of refugee crisis
Hyderabad:“Over 1,350 girls aged 11 to 16 go missing every year in Sindh (Pakistan). This is not just abuse, it’s an attempt to wipe out entire generations of those belonging to the Hindu community,” said Kiran Chukkapalli, whose photo exhibition has shed light on the horrors faced by displaced Hindu refugees in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The '7 Decades of Silent Refugee Crisis' brought to fore tragic experiences including violence, abductions, and other oppression. The images and stories, put on display in Hyderabad on Saturday, showed the struggles of refugees and how their lives changed once they returned to India.
"Mom, please tell me when you are migrating to India, so that I can die. They (abductors) force me to eat beef almost everyday. I just want to see you all cross the border." These were the last messages sent by Rinkle, a young girl who was kidnapped and forced into marriage in Pakistan.
Rinkle, despite pleading for help, was sent back to the perpetrator by a court. Heera, a 11 year-old girl, was kidnapped and held in a religious institution for abuse.
These stories reveal the plight of thousands of displaced families, many of whom have been waiting for years for Indian visas with the visa process being delayed up to eight years.
Through his Bharat Refuge Yatra, Chukkapalli has been documenting the dire conditions of refugees in India, who often arrive with as little as `4,000 and share a single bathroom with many families. Many such women in Jaisalmer walk for hours to collect firewood.
Chukkapalli has worked to improve these conditions, providing all refugees in India with many initiatives like camps, houses, solar energy and over 37 schools have been established in camps to improve access to education.
“Within months, many families manage to earn over `20,000 a month, primarily through agriculture. These people will be a lot of help to our country,” he said.
The refugee crisis, primarily caused by religious persecution, has largely remained invisible to the public.
“This year alone, 537 families have been rehabilitated, and we expect over 750 families to cross the border in 2025,” he stated. Speaking on the need for a formal refugee policy, he called for extending the same legal status and support offered to Tibetan and Sri Lankan refugees to Hindus fleeing Pakistan and Bangladesh due to religious oppression.
“Partition happened in blindness for many. Ninety-one per cent of families we surveyed didn’t even know it happened. It’s time we stand up fearlessly and see this as a humanitarian crisis, not a religious one,” he appealed, asking everyone to recognise this serious issue.
