Rehabilitation after communal violence

Dr. Sajjad HassanMisaal & Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi

LBSNAA, Musoorie, UP (IAS Phase- I training)

21st May 2015

Concepts• Communal violence? - faith based, but also ethnic and caste - mass one-sided violence, not riots between grs. - questions about state accountability

• Rehabilitation? ‘to restore to good health’- Relief: respite - Reparation: (‘make amends’) compensation - Rehabilitation: return, resettlement, justice - Reconciliation: reestablish relations

The many kinds of the loss • Deaths: from the tens to the hundreds and thousands • Injuries: grievous; most, life changing• Loss of property: houses burnt, property damaged• Displacement / internal migrants: 50k to 13K • Loss of livelihoods; downgraded jobs • Exclusion from entitlements: schemes and rights • Families pushed back generations• Permanent psychological scars• Disproportionate impact on women and children: sexual

violence, early marriages, ‘dropped out’ • Homogenised communities - polarised societies

Survivors of violence[Research: Muzaffarnagar, Gujarat, Bhagalpur] • Relief camps: security, shelter, food, health,

education…the anomie and stress • Villages: reentering economic and social structure;

economic boycott; reformatted social relations; questions about legal justice. Rebuilding lives.

• Resettlement colonies: Livelihoods, education, social security schemes, services, homogenised communities

Victim voices and expectations 1. “Administration and Police’s attitude towards us has not been helpful. They did not provide us security…….. And now all question our loss and suffering. No one shows us any sensitivity. We have been given little relief or support. Rather the government have tried to drive us out of relief camps on one pretext or another”. (Relief camp) 2. Dominant community dominate frontline positions in police and bureaucracy. This also means the administration is perceived as being biased.

“Those responsible for violence are roaming about freely. The police knows who they are, but is not arresting them. This gives the (perpetrators) the opportunity to put pressure on us to withdraw cases”. 3. State’s being skewed also hinders post-violence justice/recovery. “Peace committee has been set up, with Pradhan and other (dominant gr.) leaders, but with no (victim community) members. They held many meetings to discuss, not peace but how to get us to withdraw cases against their youth who attacked us. How do we trust them?” (Village Resident)

The weakness of the protection regime • Rule of law? - Laws poorly enforced: ‘Responsibility to Protect’. Discretionary!- Criminal justice often fails the victims of violence (+ the poor) FIRs, investigation, arrests, framing charges/dropping cases, trial, acquittals - State accountability: a serious Q! Even those identified by state led enquiries, not brought to justice. • Displacement and compensation - Victims not counted among ‘internally displaced’: denied many entitlements - No national policy, standard or protocol on compensation and

rehabilitation: great variance; generally adhoc measures, subject to political pressures

- ‘Reparation Principal’: International norms, wider scope/depth

What to watch out for? • Not exercising the huge authority that the law gives you as

administrators/magistrates… to protect citizens…rather being swayed by political pressures, personal interests, or worse, stereotypes and prejudices.

• Treating communal violence as any other administrative matter. It is not! Loss of lives, livelihoods and hopes and futures…

• Leaving all to subordinate officers – many may be compromised. You must lead from the front!

- Relief response and management - Identifying victims: Surveys and procedural red tape - Dispensing justice: Legal, protection, compensation… - Resettling the displaced: Important for posterity - Rebuilding peace: Honest and bold

The Bottom Line!• Lead from the front: Prevention + post violence • Sensitivity: to the loss of lives, property, livelihoods; and the

complete breakdown of people’s livesBalance administrative pragmatism and sensitivity to the enormity of the loss (of victims and society). Needs a different kind of skill – efficiency and coordination, also humanism.

• Fairness: If there is one occasion when people expect you to be fair, it is this. Holding the ground against pressures, ensuring that all sections are treated fairly as citizens. Huge restorer of trust in the law – something that usually takes a beating during mass violence episodes

Thank You!

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