At least 14 Pakistani Hindus who left Pakistan for India having trust in Modi’s high hopes have found it a nightmare, as it shattered their lives.
An Anadolu News Agency report published on the Pakistan-based Tribune (September 14) said that the Pakistani Hindus being provoked and lured by Modi’s high hopes of fast-track citizenship opted to migrate to India, but returned back to Pakistan within six months, experiencing miserable and uncertain lives.
Speaking to the reporters at the Indo-Pak Wagah border crossing, they narrated their bitter lives in India that compelled them to return to Pakistan.
Kanhaya Lal and Nanak Ram, the heads of the families, said they went to India hoping for better economic prospects, but it was a “farce” and they suffered great hardships. Kanhaya lal informed more than 28,000 Pakistani Hindus are stranded in Jodhpur waiting to return home to avert the same problems.
He said that life in India was so harsh that in August, a family of 11 Pakistani Hindus was found dead in a rented farmhouse in the city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, the 5th richest state of India.
“I knew that family, and most of them were educated. But there are no opportunities for any outsiders in India,” Kanhaya Lal said, adding, “The fact is they were living in miserable conditions and suffered from extreme poverty and there were dangerous threats to their lives.”
Mentionable, India recently passed a controversial law allowing Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to apply for fast-track citizenship. These Pakistanis opted to avail of this opportunity but they found it as a mere illusion.
The bitter experiences of Kanhaya Lal and Nanak Ram uncovered how poor superpower India is, where hundreds of millions of Indians still starve and remain unemployed despite having high educational degrees.
Let us see how far the ground realities of India coincide and how relevant they are to the harsh experiences of the shattered Hindus who returned or are waiting to return to Pakistan. Some people may argue that such a situation happened due to the Covid-19 pandemic that created unemployment and poverty. To prevent such confusion, let us explore the extent of unemployment and, therefore, poverty that prevailed in India immediately before the pandemic.
An Indian online media outlet The WIRE (February 25, 2019) wrote, India’s unemployment numbers are at a record high. The Wire states that there are several alarming reports that hundreds of young people with master’s degrees or even Phds are applying for jobs they are overqualified for. According to a report prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University, unemployment among the well-educated is thrice the national average. There are approximately 55 million people in the labor market with at least a graduate degree – of which nine million are estimated to be unemployed.
Let us look at the scenario of (UP) Uttar Pradesh, the 2nd richest state of India. On February 17, 2017 an international online media outlet CATCH News under a caption ‘Superpower India: PhD degree holders queue up to be sweepers’ said, the UP government issued an order for appointing 35,774 cleaning staff on contract for municipal bodies. Millions of unemployed youth across the state applied for the jobs, including those highly educated and holding PhDs, MBAs, and B Techs.
Earlier when the UP government declared to recruit 368 peons at a pay scale of Rs 5,200-20,200 per month, it attracted a “whopping 23 lakh applications within 33 days, including those from 255 PhD scholars and 2.22 lakh BTech, BSc, BCom, MSc, MCom and MA degree holders. Ironically, the minimum qualification required was clearing the 8th grade.”
On another occasion, UP government, when invited application 1,400 accountants more than 27 lakh candidates applied for the post
Uttar Pradesh is not alone. In state after state, highly qualified unemployed youths are ready to take up menial jobs. About 75,000 applied for 30 posts for peons in Chhattisgarh. In Kerala, more than 2.5 lakh were in line for 450 clerical jobs. Thousands applied to become sanitation workers in Rajasthan’s Kota.
The Print, an Indian media outlet (February 8, 2019) stated that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s BJP government in July 2017 invited applications for the post of ‘telephone messengers’ in the police department. A telephone messenger is supposed to be a letter-carrier of sorts for the police department, ferrying documents and files between police stations on bicycles.
But the selection board was shocked seeing the educational degrees of the applicants — 50,000 graduates, 28,000 post-graduates and 3,700 PhD — who applied for 62 posts.
Of the 93,000 applicants, all but 7,400 were overqualified. The list of applicants included those with B.Tech, M.Sc and MBA degrees.
Another report of The Print said that the Indian Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) had applications to fill 62,907 vacancies under ‘Level 1’ category. Level 1 refers to the lowest level in the railways, including posts such as gangman (those who maintain tracks), gateman, points man, helper in electrical/mechanical/engineering/ signal/telecommunications, porter etc.
The minimum qualification for these was grade 10, or certificates from the National Council on Vocational Training or Industrial Training Institutes, or National Apprenticeship Certificates. 1.9 crore applicants applied for the job. That is, 302 applicants for every job.
This is not a one-off. The RRB had also held an exam for 1.27 lakh posts on 31 August of the same year. About 2.35 crore candidates applied, and a vast number of them too were overqualified.
The Print alleged that the government exaggerated the real figure of jobs claimed to have added. The government claimed that 31.1 lakh jobs were added between September 2017 and February 2018. But researchers like the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said the figure was closer to 18 lakhs.
Kanhaya Lal said that the 11 Hindus who went to India were leading miserable conditions and suffering from extreme poverty and were found dead inside their rented house in Rajasthan. The UN World Food Program says, “–-high levels of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition persist. Around 21.25 percent of the population lives on less than US$1.90 a day, and levels of inequality and social exclusion are very high.
India is home to a quarter of all undernourished people worldwide, making the country a key focus for tackling hunger on a global scale. In the last two decades, per capita income more than tripled, yet the minimum dietary intake fell.”
India FoodBanking Network said, FAO estimates in The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020 report, 189.2 million people are undernourished in India. By this measure, 14% of the population is undernourished in India. Also, 51.4% of women in reproductive age between 15 to 49 years are anemic. Further according to the report, 34.7% of the children aged under five in India are stunted (too short for their age), while 20% suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height. Malnourished children have a higher risk of death from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. The Global Hunger Index 2019 ranks India at 102 out of 117 countries on the basis of three leading indicators — prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under 5 years, under 5 child mortality rate, and the proportion of undernourished in the population.
Action Against Hunger, an organization that has been working in India since 2011, states that India alone accounts for 54% of all undernutrition- related child deaths worldwide.
I refrained from mentioning the havoc caused by pandemic in India that shattered India in the field of unemployment that aggravated starvation and malnutrition further. So the Hindus who voluntarily migrated to India opt to return to Pakistan.
But their remigration one day may emerge as a threat to the security and integration of Pakistan, as RAW might have already brainwashed them and inspired them to return to Pakistan. It will not be possible for Pakistan to monitor each Hindus for centuries. If there is no international obligation, Pakistan should reconsider whether it will be wiser to accept the remigration of the Hindus. Generosity in this case may lead to jeopardizing the solidarity of Pakistan.
*The writer is a New York-based, Bangladeshi-origin journalist & researcher.
September 15, 2020
