Tucked in the south-east border of the Capital, a refugee colony housing around 65 families of the Rohingya community exhibits a mundane atmosphere, a far cry from other Muslim communities in the surrounding locality.
Mohammad Salaam, a Rohingya refugee living in the settlement colony for the past two years, said he was concerned about where the money for his next meal would come from.
“ Ramzan ka mahina toh chal raha hai . Magar kuch khas nahi hota yaha [The month of Ramzan is going on, but nothing special happens here],” Mr. Salaam muttered as he looked at the dilapidated makeshift houses built on a barren piece of government land.
Mr. Salaam belongs to a family of 11. His father, mother, brothers and sisters are currently refugees in Bangladesh.
Since the holy month of Ramzan began on May 5, a mosque adjacent to the colony has been offering Iftar — an evening meal with which the Muslims end their daily Ramzan fast — to the Rohingya community.
‘Inhumane conditions’
Mohammad Wakeel, a local priest in the mosque, said everyday around 30-40 people of the community arrive for the Iftar. He said the condition in which the Rohingyas were surviving were “inhumane”. “These people [the Rohingyas] do not even have windows in their houses. To survive the scorching heat of the summer in such conditions is just inhumane,” Mr. Wakeel said.
27-year-old Mohammad Shakir, one of the few educated Rohingyas in the colony, has been actively pursing the cases of those who are lodged in jails across the country. “There are around 400 Rohingyas in jails in Assam, Tripura, Kolkata, and even in Delhi,” Mr. Shakir said.
He said Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj refugee colony, which has about 280-odd Rohingyas, has a low crime rate.
“One person is under trial for rape and two others for stealing,” Mr. Shakir said, adding that the theft case was “all made-up”.
Most of the people in the refugee colony rely on odd jobs to earn money, with a large number ending up as daily wagers in local construction projects.
Zafar Alam (29), who drives an e-rickshaw, is among a few who have been able to break this mould.
Since 2012, when Alam and his family first entered India, he has come a long way. “I am now married and have kids to feed,” Mr. Alam said, adding that he was living in a foreign land and all he has is faith in “ allah ”.
“ Bache poochte hai ki hum kab wapis jayenge ... Mere ankhon main aansu aa jaate hai [I get tears in my eyes when my children ask me when we will go back],” he said.
‘We all are equal’
A middle-aged man, who had been keenly listening to Mr. Alam’s story interrupted and said: “Who said you are outsiders? We all are equal.”
A teacher in a local school, Sameem Akhtar, had come for Iftar and prayer at the mosque, but could not resist weighing in. “Once upon a time, everywhere from Kandahar to Burma was part of India. If you consider that, its ghar wapsi [homecoming] for you all,” Mr. Akhtar opined.
Mr. Alam quickly retorted, “ Toh bhej kyun rahe ho? Roko na humein [Then why are you sending us back? Why don’t you stop us?]”.
