EDITORIAL
Hindustan Times
November 27, 2006


If the Gujarat government had its way, we should have forgotten about Gujarat 2002. Even if we discount the shameful role that the local administration played during the post-Godhra massacres and the fact that the culprits are yet to be brought to justice, we could argue the need to not dwell forever on the horrific events for the sake of Gujarat's future. But how can one 'move on' when there is the unfinished business of rehabilitating thousands of riot victims? Any talk of closure becomes absurd when these thousands continue to languish almost five years after the 'incident'. Following a report of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) that focused on the failure of existing rehabilitation policies in Gujarat, the central government has decided to review the policies determining the compensation and rehabilitation packages provided to massacre victims and their families.

The Centre will pay Rs 7 lakh as compensation to the families of over 2,000 victims killed during the 2002 pogrom. Putting a price tag to human lives is incredibly difficult. But it is a much less philosophical exercise - and a much more urgent one - to provide monetary relief so that enforced hardships can be made to disappear. Over 5,000 families displaced by the 2002 riots continue to live in camps in 'sub-human conditions' that lack basic facilities like water, sewage, health and schools, approachable roads and streetlights. In the words of the NCM report prepared after a five-day visit to 16 of the 17 aid camps in October, these refugees, overwhelmingly Muslim, are 'marooned' from the rest of society. The Gujarat government insists that these families refuse to leave these camps and 'return home'. Unfortunately, the fact that only 7 per cent of compensation has been disbursed by the local authorities tell a different story. Till date, the state government has paid only Rs 41 crore in compensation, and actually returned Rs 19 crore to the Centre unspent.

Local authorities cite problems in the implementation procedure (lack of ration cards, etc.). To ensure that the same 'implementational failure' does not recur with the central package, a monitoring mechanism to check rehabilitation measures should be immediately set up. Compensation schemes amount to nothing if the money does not reach its intended destination. And we must not forget that there are real people who continue to suffer every day even as we are tempted to treat Gujarat 2002 only as a mad, bad and dangerous memory.