A fierce controversy is raging in Jammu & Kashmir over the issue of refugees/migrants in the state, often taking a regional or communal form. Does anybody engaged in this controversy know how many refugees and migrants are in the state? Bulk of these refugees reside in Jammu region. What are the categories to which they belong? What precisely are their respective problems and solutions thereof? The issue was raised in the report of the working group on “confidence building measures across segments of society” in J&K presented at the third Roundtable Conference in New Delhi on April 24. It just mentioned problems of some of them without suggesting the solution.

For instance, the group recommended that the rights of Kashmiri Pandit migrants to return to the places of their original residence should be recognised and a comprehensive package devised in consultation with their representatives. The Pandit representatives at the conference protested against this recommendation. They asked why should their right to return need recognition and why did not the working group consult their representatives to devise a package.

Kashmiri Pandits are a very vocal community and have raised their problems at international fora. Moreover, there is no controversy about their right to return. Nor do they lack sympathy of their Muslim brethren in Kashmir valley. But the same cannot be said about refugees in Jammu from other areas.

The working group has taken notice of the refugees, who came from West Pakistan and recommends that the problem of their state subject status should be settled once for all. But it avoids any discussion on how to settle this issue and their other problems. Similarly, it mentions in passing the issue of full rehabilitation of refugees after the wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.

But, most glaring omission in the report is total ignorance of the refugees from Pak-administered part of the state who are by far largest in number. Around 42,000 families were officially registered. Unlike refugees in Punjab, their claims for the properties left behind were not registered and they received no compensation for them, on the specious plea that Pakistan (Kashmir) was a part of India and they would be rehabilitated there when it would be liberated. But after 60 years, this plea hardly has of any meaning.

Some of them belonging to rural areas, have been settled temporarily on the land of Muslim evacuees. Under the Evacuee Property Act, the evacuees who return could claim their property. But the limitation period is 12 years. As this period is long over, no such claims can be entertained. Moreover, most of the evacuees have acquired Pakistan citizenship hence no more entitled to be the state subjects.

As far as registering the claims of refugees from West Pakistan, there is absolutely no justification for treating them differently from refugees from Pakistan settled elsewhere in India. Whether they should be given permanent citizen’s rights can be decided when tempers cool down. It may, however, be mentioned that total number of their families was 3,000 and they are Scheduled Castes. Even making allowance for increase in their number, their number is too insignificant to affect the demographic composition of the state.

A large number of people migrated from villages on the border and Line of Control during firing from the other side till a cease fire was announced in 2003. Some of them were advised to vacate their lands by the Army to enable it to lay mines on the border. According to a statement of the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, their number totalled 1.50 lakh.

Then there are migrants from militancy affected parts of Jammu region who are put up in temporary shelters around Jammu city. They were not registered as migrants and given much relief as the government felt that it might encourage more migration from those areas. As the violence has considerably come down in districts of Doda, Rajouri and Poonch as compared to the valley, the government should consider the case for their return in stages with adequate compensation and means to resettle there.

Finally, while the case of Kashmiri Pandit migrants with 33,000 registered families is widely debated, the case of 1,600 Muslim and 1,656 Sikh registered families who had to migrate from Kashmir valley in 1990 due to insecurity has been completely ignored. The Muslim migrants felt threatened on account of their political beliefs. They are not vocal in raising their problems as they apprehend reprisals on their relatives left behind.

Each category of migrants have its specific problems which call for different solutions. But first of all a thorough study is needed to know the exact situation. If the government is not interested or is unable to do that, some NGOs and research scholars should undertake the task in an objective and impartial  manner. After all, it relates to a population which almost equals the permanently settled persons in Jammu and is one of the major causes of regional discontent. It would not be an exaggeration to call Jammu, a land of migrants.

Above all, the political leaders should be able to rise above partisan and regional or religious considerations and treat a human problem which essentially it is. It does not speak well of the political health of the state that almost all parties of Kashmir, whether mainstream or  separatist, are on one side of the fence while all Jammu-based leaders  are on the other side on this issue.