IPS Inter Press Service:
In Serfanguri relief camp in Kokrajhar, several tents were erected, but they are inadequate to properly house the roughly 2,000 people who had reached there. This single tent houses 25 women and children. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS
IPS Inter Press Service:
Hunger is constant in the refugee camps, with meagre rations of rice, lentils, cooking oil and salt falling short of most families’ basic needs. Women are forced to walk long distances to fetch firewood for woodstoves. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS
IPS Inter Press Service:
This child, a resident of the Serfanguri camp, is suffering from a skin infection. His mother says they are yet to receive medicines from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). A few vans full of medical personnel drive around the camps, but make no pr
IPS Inter Press Service:
With food in limited supply and fish being a staple part of the Assamese diet, it is common to see women and even children fishing in the marshy swamps that line the edge of the refugee camps, no matter how muddy or dirty the water might be. Credit: Priya
IPS Inter Press Service:
This little boy is one of hundreds whose schooling has been interrupted due to violence. The local administration is attempting to evict refugees from the camps, most of which are housed in school compounds, but little is being done to ensure the educatio
IPS Inter Press Service:
Scenes like this were not uncommon at relief camps inhabited by the Bodo community. Many families have accepted that they will have a long wait before returning to their homes, or before their children resume schooling. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS
IPS Inter Press Service:
Sonatoni Karmakar's husband and brother were shot during clashes between Adivasis and Bodos in 1996. Although none of her family was injured in the recent attacks, they have rekindled her old nightmares. In a state of terror, she fled her home village and
IPS Inter Press Service:
In Gongia village, IDPs who did not have access to the government’s relief supplies brought woven bamboo sheets from their homes and erected tents using sarees as walls. During the day, the refugees spend their time in their village or their farmlands, bu
IPS Inter Press Service:
With just a few tube wells erected at camps housing hundreds, access to potable water means endless queues and getting everyone in the family involved. Even children are seen carrying heavy pails of water back to their tents. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IP
IPS Inter Press Service:
An Adivasi woman dries her saree in the sun, alongside scores of other families’ clothing. For most women, bathing and washing clothes is a major undertaking, involving trekking long distances to reach streams or other sources of fresh, clean water. Credi
IPS Inter Press Service:
As is often the case for refugee populations, women face a double burden, with their monthly cycle posing yet another challenge to life in a makeshift shelter. One woman at a camp in Lalachor village tells IPS she has been forced to tear her own clothes a
IPS Inter Press Service:
Health officials claim there has been a high rate of increase in water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and skin infections at relief camps. Here, women and their children wade through unclean water to reach the relief camp where they have been living since