For Pakistani Hindus in Delhi, the unending pursuit of home

Huddled on a cot with her younger sister and four cousins, a five-year-old girl with unkempt hair and a bright red comic princess T-shirt munches on chips, unaware of the thorny legal battle her family is fighting for their identity and to find their place in this country.

- Snehil Sinha

When asked why she isn't studying, she wastes no time in flaunting her knowledge: "I study. A for Apple, B for Ball, C for Cat, D for Dog...," she continues. But when asked why she isn't at school on a Monday morning, her response is quick: "They gave us food and sent us back home. I don't study there. I study at home."

Her mother, 28-year-old Aarti Das, offers a resigned explanation: the government school her daughter attends provides meals, but little in the way of teaching.

"Whatever she knows is thanks to a volunteer-run centre nearby, where a teacher comes for an hour thrice a week," said Aarti.

With three children to care for, Aarti and her husband can only afford to send their eldest-a seven-year-old son-to a private school.

The family's struggles are part of a larger story of 175 Pakistani Hindu families living in a slum near Majnu Ka Tila, each grappling with the uncertain promises of a new life in India.

But the name of her daughter encapsulates what they have sought for decades-Nagarikta.

A journey of hope

In 2013, Aarti, along with her father-in-law, Dayal Das, and their family, fled Hyderabad in Pakistan on a pilgrimage visa and to never return.

Hindu farmers in Pakistan, they said, were exploited by landlords who took their produce without payment.

After decades of hardship, the family arrived in India, hoping for a life of dignity.

The family, one of many such immigrants, lived for a few years in Bijwasan and Kanjhawala with the support of a sympathetic former Customs official, before moving to an unauthorised colony near Majnu Ka Tila.

For 175-odd Pakistani Hindu families settled there, the December 2019 announcement of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was nothing short of a festival.

This was also the reason Dayal Das picked the name for his granddaughter-born just two days before CAA was passed in Parliament on December 11, 2019.