Imagine being sexually harassed each time you step out your front door. - on the street, on the bus to work, at your job, on your way home. Imagine not knowing how you’ll earn enough money to feed your children, when your husband is in prison back home and you’re living on your own in a foreign country that does not recognize you as a refugee.
These were some of the stories that Burmese Chin refugee women shared with Refugees International in Delhi, India. These Chin women, who fled their homes in Burma because of persecution and violence perpetrated against them by the Burmese military, now find themselves living in conditions that are only slightly more secure than they were at home.
The majority of Chin refugees in India live in Mizoram state, in the northeast part of the country. However, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is not allowed to operate there (the Indian government has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and restricts UNHCR’s operations to Delhi). Chin refugees who wish to register with UNHCR and access the basic services the agency provides through partners must travel to Delhi, where they end up living in poor conditions, with little access to livelihoods, and persistent harassment from the local Indian population.
Chin women in particular experience widespread abuse and sexual harassment in Delhi. The Chin look ethnically different from local Indians, and Chin women told us that they are usually targeted as a result.
One woman told us that because she couldn’t earn enough money through menial jobs to support her family in Delhi, she was forced to collect discarded vegetables from the night market in her neighborhood. She was frequently harassed by local men because she was out alone at night, and she also became sick from eating the rotten produce.
When Chin women are harassed, they are reluctant to go to the local police to report abuses. Given their illegal status in India, many are scared of making their situation public. In cases of rape, they are even more hesitant, particularly because of the stigma attached to survivors of rape in their own community.
While UNHCR does provide some legal assistance through a local partner and also runs a women’s center for the refugees, many of the Chin women told us that they didn’t think there would be any result if they pressed for legal action, so they often preferred that the cases went unreported.
In order to help each other and provide for their own community, many of the Chin women, as well as other Burmese refugee women, have formed women’s groups in Delhi. These groups meet often to discuss their problems and try to support each other through difficult situations, including collecting money to help with the high cost of medical treatment in severe cases.
The work that these women’s groups carry out for their community is vital to their survival in such a difficult situation. UNHCR and donors should give more support to build the capacity of these groups, so that they can continue to play a key role in protecting and providing for vulnerable refugee women in Delhi. They should also look at stepping up public education campaigns targeted at police, the judicial system, schools, hospitals, and other public officials who can help mitigate the harassment suffered by refugees on a daily basis.
TAKE ACTION: [1] Urge Congress to re-introduce the International Violence Against Women Act.
For the next few weeks, Refugees International will be posting about the rights of women around the globe as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. [2]