On Tawi island, ‘refugee’ tag keeps marriage prospects low

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Sampuranpur Kulian , Sept 25

Chak Bhutay and Sampuranpur Kulian, two villages of Marh constituency situated on the Tawi island, depict dismal conditions of West Pakistan refugees who are victims of “bias” being meted out to them by the successive governments.

In these two villages, over 90 per cent of the youth are unmarried due to the “refugee” stigma being attached to them.

“People do not marry their daughters to our sons because they (refugee boys) don’t have bright future prospects,” said Ram Singh, a refugee leader of Sampuranpur Kulian. He said due to the denial of basic rights, refugee youths could not even continue higher education in government-run professional or educational institutes. “A majority of our youths are earning their livelihood by working as labourers,” he said.

Barita Ram, whose youngest son Kuldeep, has crossed the age of 32, said he was finding it difficult to find a match for his three sons. “It is due to poverty that locals are not interested in entering into any relationship with us,” he said.

In Sampuranpur Kulian and Bhutay Chak, there are nearly 125 Dalit families of West Pakistani Refugees and a majority of men, who have attained marriageable age, are unmarried due to their socio-economic conditions.

“Except for working as a labourer in fields or as a construction worker we have no other option. So people have genuine reasons to reject our marriage proposals,” said Mohan Lal, a refugee youth in his late 30s. “Our future is bleak as long as citizenship rights are not granted to us,” he said and added that due to the denial of citizenship rights, refugee boys could not even pursue higher studies.

The successive governments in the state and at the Centre have discredited these refugees as “unwanted citizens” so their problems are compounding with every passing day.