INTRODUCTION
Partition of India brought a big flow of migration which put forward a challenge of resettlement of refugees in small cities by the Indian government. No one, even Gandhi and Congress leaders, were sure that migration would be permanent and continued to be optimistic. Migration reduced the moral values of people. Refugees were put into refugee camps set up by the government where essential needs like water supply, electric street lights, kitchens and sanitary arrangements were done. Education department of the country contributed to providing services to displaced people. It was mandatory for the students of schools and colleges to volunteer for three months in exchange for which they were given certificates of degree completion by Panjab University without giving exams.
REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
- RURAL REHABILITATION :- People were temporarily allotted evacuee lands which was based on equal distribution of land irrespective of what that owned earlier. Every family got ten acres of land. The Taccavi loan system was provided to give people financial assistance. Within two months about two millions acres of land was occupied. These temporarily alloted land were turned into permanent settlement as it was confirmed that this migration was permanent. It encouraged people to improve the quality of lands allotted to them. Two major initiatives were taken by the government for the allotment of permanent proprietorship of land. The concept of Standard Acre and the Graded cuts were introduced. This scheme worked well in practice. Another concept was the setting up of Garden colonies. Displaced people were allotted evacuee fruit bearing gardens. People interested in horticulture were distributed with twenty seven blocks of evacuated land. This resulted in cultivation of twenty thousand acres more in East Punjab. Cooperative Garden Colony Societies were set to provide essential requirements for horticulture along with marketing and packing of fruits.
- URBAN REHABILITATION :- Permanent housing settlement was introduced by the government to settle the displaced people. The concept of 50 square feet of floor area for an adult and 39 for a child was introduced. Refugee families were forced to live under most deteriorated conditions. Government tool responsibility to repair damaged houses of Muslims evacuee houses but wasn't sufficient to accommodate all refugees. About 17 suburbs were introduced. Cheap housing scheme was introduced for poor people. Refugees were allotted shops and stalls. Under the office of Director General of Rehabilitation and Employment refugees were given first priorities in given office vacancies. 36 vocational centres and 26 technical institutes were introduced to encourage vocational training like to manufacture saleable goods and sell them. Widows, orphans and old people were majorly exploited during migration. Being illiterate they were not able to possess any skills so they were sent to four large women houses, three infirmity and Sewa Sadan where free medical aids, clothing cash for ration was provided.
All Anglo vernacular schools and colleges were closed and national schools and colleges were developed. Displaced students were able to continue their studies without certificates by passing tests held by the institution. Scholarship was continued for migrated students under different institutions.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is absolutely clear that the task of resettlement was not easy for people and the government. Thinking that this migration will be temporary, the scheme of temporary settlement was introduced which turned into permanent settlement. Task of settlement was differently handled in rural and urban areas. But all together the task settlement was accomplished.
BOOK REFERENCE ( CLICK TO BUY )
The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India)