Hope floats for 18-year-old Muzaffarnagar riots survivor

Contrary to its name, Jannat colony, setup for Muslim families displaced in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots has nothing heavenly about it.

Water is scarce and not fit for consumption, electricity too is only available when residents hook a line to the main electric wire running past the colony. Families manually extract waste emanating from latrines owing to lack of a drainage system, and residents face tremendous amount of health issues due to lack of sanitation infrastructure.

Among 1,200 odd people living in the colony is 18-year-old Rizwan Saifi, perhaps one of the few here who still thinks the future might just have something good in store for him.

Saifi was 15 when his grandfather was hacked to death by a mob in Kaval village in Muzaffarnagar in 2013. His village was actually the vantage point from where the riots had erupted after an altercation between Hindu and Muslim youth.

"Only when the panchayat was held in September did we realise that the situation would worsen. Our relatives from elsewhere called us and advised us to leave home but some of our neighbours assured us nothing would happen. Family friends whom I had grown up with were the first ones to attack us," Saifi said.

He added that the children of his family were directed to leave home a night before his grandfather's murder. Saifi's elder brother accompanied all the children and brought them to safety in Kairana where they waited for rest of family to arrive in case the situation worsened. However, fate had something else in store for Saifi's family.

"When the mob attacked, men and women managed to escape and hid in nearby fields including my father, but my grandfather wasn't so lucky. My father who was hiding in the field saw his father get murdered. He told us that they first shot him then attacked him with swords and finally burnt him. My father tried to save him but other people hiding with him stopped my father saying that the mob of 300 would murder all of them," Saifi said.

Dreadful memories continue to haunt Saifi but he seems to have found a way to fight back.

"I want to study in TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences). I have been preparing for the same but had to drop out of college due to financial crises. I will continue though," Saifi said, adding that he wanted to be a social worker. Why? "Because I don't want a repeat of what happened in 2013," he said.

Saifi's grandmother Mukhtiyari, who is in her 80s, does not comprehend much when Saifi talks about his future plans but she breaks down when her grandson mentions her husband.

"They burnt my husband and nothing remains of him. We left everything back home," Mukhtiyari said.

Saifi said that initially he influenced by social workers and peace activists who visited the relief camps back in 2013, but its the state that his grandmother lives in that made Rizwan think of becoming a social worker.

Akram Akhtar of the Afkar India Foundation is a mentor that Saifi looks upto. Akhtar, also from Kandhla, has been an activist for 10 years and continues to be one saying that "never in his life has he seen such a communally sensitive time". He said that western UP is increasingly getting ghettoised and receiving a formal education becoming even more difficult for riot victims.

"The situation here continues to be so bad that we are witnessing Muslim families not affected by riots coming to stay in these colonies. They are even buying land here," Akhtar said citing reports he compiles regarding the situation of displaced Muslim families.

"Pursuing education is a big achievement," Akram said adding, "Young people like Rizwan are our hope."