Rah-E-Nijat, the hindu refugee camp, is located in the suburbs of Karachi. Since certain parts of Pakistan still endorse a very strict feudal system, in which landlords enslave their personnel, this establishment was created to support the families suffering of these circumstances.
Being a minority, the hindu population of Pakistan is still the primary ethnicity that is used for slavery. Extreme working hours and no income causes them to be highly indebted to their owners. To repay these debts, the hindu families are forced to sell their daughters virginity, after which many try to flee into the major cities. They end up living on the trash deposits, on which Pakistani authorities force them to pay for rent and water. There are an estimated 3000 families living in Karachi alone, having no options except for begging and prostitution. When crimes occur in these areas, young hindu men are the first ones accused, tortured and convicted, without any judicial procedures. Pakistani authorities refuse to grant the hindus living in these areas any form of legal identities, making it impossible for them to find work. They have no legal status.
The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Clinic, an organization based in Karachi, set up this refugee camp with the help of sponsors, to ensure safety, work and education for these families. Yet these families have to fulfill certain criteria to be permitted to the camp. Although fathers prefer for their children to beg, a family in the refugee camp is obliged to admit their children to school, and parents have to find a job that does not consist of begging on the streets of Karachi. The families have a one-year trial period, in which they still live in tents. If they succeed fulfilling these criteria, they are allowed to move into a proper housing complex.
Momentarily, there are approximately 300 families living in the Rah-E-Nijat refugee camp. Although still dependant on sponsoring aid and foreign investments, the people living in the camp have proved an enormous amount of self sufficiency, in organizing distribution of goods and creating a workflow independently of the organizations that provide aid., especially after the heavy monsoon of August 2006 caused massive destruction in the tent camp.
