South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 Pakistani Hindu Camp, Adarsh Nagar, Delhi: A profile The residents of the makeshift settlement for Pakistani Hindu refugees in New Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar area harbour a lot of hope in the Indian government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his spirited national election campaign in 2014, had made a concerted effort to paint India as the natural homeland for persecuted Hindus from across the world. ‘If there are atrocities on Hindus in Fiji, where will they go? Should they not come to India? If Hindus are persecuted in Mauritius, where should they go? Hindustan!’ he had declared, emphatically. That the story of the Pakistani Hindu refugees in India remains one of the unfulfilled promises is, however, apparent the minute one enters their colony in Adarsh Nagar. The colony, built over a low-lying site that was once a burial ground for small children, is located next to a landfill, leading to a pervasive pungency in the air. The buildings in the hutment are made of mud and thatched leaves, leaving the camp’s 700-odd residents— including at least 150 children and 250 women, from over 100 families— glaringly exposed to nature’s whims. We are immediately greeted by a bevy of children, who are happy but dishevelled. ‘Jai Shri Ram,’ they say, with broad smiles and folded arms. A lone Indian flag flails about in the background, surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes. ‘This camp was established in 2013, with around a hundred inhabitants. The number of people has increased over the years, but the conditions have not improved much,’ says Hari Om Sahoo, our guide for the day, a local social worker who acts as a caretaker for the colony. ‘As you can see, sanitation is terrible. Insect bites and snake bites are common. The children fall sick all the time. During the monsoon, the whole area floods and water rises up to here,’ he adds, pointing to his knee. Despite the harrowing conditions, most of the residents who spoke to us justify their decision to seek refuge in India, citing the deplorable situation for Hindus back in Pakistan. The adult males are mostly former bonded labourers and agricultural workers from Pakistan’s Sindh province. ‘If you are a Hindu bonded labourer in Pakistan, you are doubly vulnerable. You cannot fight back,’ says Aakash*, who arrived from Tando Allahyar district a year ago, with most of his family accompanying him. Historically easy targets for revenge attacks whenever tensions have flared up between the two countries, or whenever large-scale violence has been perpetrated against Muslims in India, Pakistan’s Hindus cite an atmosphere of fear in their home country as their main reason for fleeing to India. A recent spate of abductions and forced conversions has added to their concerns, with South Asia Partnership Pakistan, a local NGO, estimating that around 1,000 girls are abducted and forcibly converted to Islam every year. A draconian blasphemy law that mainstream Pakistani 46