India - Urgent Needs of Internally Displaced Persons

A camp in the hills 8km from Diphu, capital of Karbi Anglong. It was set up by the government in 2005. It is home to 996 Karbi families (around 5000 people). Despite the precarious conditions in the camp they fear reprisals in their villages from insurgent groups and do not wish to return.

Credit: Viviane Dalles

http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/(httpCountries)/5762D122F45E14B0802570A7004BBA1F?OpenDocument&count=1000

INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT MONITORING CENTRE

3 May 2007

India: Large numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP's) are Unassisted and in Need of Protection

Girl and her grandmother at the
entrance of their shelter, near Bijni,
western Assam, Dalles, 2007

Civilians have fled fighting and have sometimes been directly targeted by militant groups in Kashmir, the North-East and in several states of eastern and central India. Insurgency and retaliatory operations by security forces are the major immediate cause of conflict-related displacement in India. A majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs) have not been able to return for several years, due to either protracted conflicts or unresolved disputes over land and property. One example is India’s largest group of internally displaced, the Kashmiri Pandits who have been fleeing the Kashmir Valley since 1989 due to persecution, killings and massacres. Thousands more have languished in relief camps in Assam since the early 1990s, while more than 5,000 families remain displaced after the communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in 2002. During 2006, displacement has been on the rise in Chhattisgarh state, where more than 45,000 people are currently in relief camps and many thousands are thought to have fled to neighbouring states. Ongoing conflict between ethnic armed groups and anti-insurgent operations by the national army in the states of Assam and Manipur have also displaced thousands.

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Picture gallery: Internal Displacement in Assam, India: Karbi Anglong and Kokaraja district
Picture gallery: Internal Displacement in Assam, India: Kokaraja district