Refugee rights, the gendered nature of displacement
Source: The Hindu
For Prelims:
- India's Refugee Population: Over 46,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers in India as of early 2022.
- Gender Distribution: 46% of refugees and asylum-seekers in India are women and girls.
- Mental Health Risks: Refugee women are twice as likely to suffer from PTSD and four times as likely to experience depression compared to male refugees.
- Legal Framework: India has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWDA) in 2016.
- Healthcare Access: Refugees primarily rely on government hospitals for healthcare, which are often overburdened, with mental health services being particularly inaccessible.
- International Commitments: India has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.
For Mains (GS II - Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations):
- Challenges for Refugee Women with Disabilities:
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- Compounded vulnerability due to gender, disability, and refugee status.
- Limited access to healthcare, especially mental health services.
- Legal exclusion under India’s RPWDA, which does not extend protections to non-nationals.
- Judicial Protection vs. Practical Reality:
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- The Indian judiciary upholds the right to life and healthcare for refugees under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- However, practical access to healthcare services remains restricted for refugees, particularly those with disabilities.
- Need for Legislative Framework:
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- Absence of a specific domestic legal framework for refugees leads to inadequate protection of their rights, particularly for those with disabilities.
- Importance of creating a uniform framework to integrate refugees into India's legal and social services.
- Role of International and National NGOs:
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- Collaboration with NGOs and international organizations is crucial for creating targeted programs that address the specific needs of refugee women with disabilities.
- Global Accountability:
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- Importance of holding India accountable to its commitments under the UNCRPD and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on the empowerment of vulnerable populations.
Highlights of the Article:
- Plight of Refugee Women with Disabilities:
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- Refugee women with disabilities in India face compounded challenges, including gender-based violence, mental health issues, and exclusion from legal protections.
- Healthcare Access Issues:
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- Overburdened government hospitals and prohibitive costs of private healthcare restrict refugee women’s access to essential services, particularly mental health care.
- Legal and Policy Gaps:
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- Despite India's commitments under the UNCRPD, refugee women with disabilities remain largely unprotected due to the non-extension of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWDA) to non-nationals.
- Judicial vs. Practical Realities:
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- While the judiciary has recognized the right to life and healthcare for refugees, practical access remains severely limited, particularly for those with disabilities.
- Urgent Need for a Legislative Framework:
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- The absence of a specific domestic legal framework for refugees leads to inadequate protection, highlighting the need for urgent codification of laws that integrate refugees, especially those with disabilities, into India’s social services
Context:
Armed conflict, violence, human rights abuses, and persecution compel millions across the world to flee their homes and homelands for survival, and become ‘displaced people’ in the process. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of 2023, 11.73 crore people, worldwide, had been forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order
UPSC EXAM NOTES ANALYSIS
1. Refugee demographics and female face
- India has long been seen as a country that welcomes refugees, having hosted over 200,000 diverse refugee groups since gaining independence. As of January 31, 2022, there were 46,000 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in India, with women and girls making up 46% of this population.
- This group is particularly vulnerable, often shouldering the burden of caregiving and family support alone, as they are typically the last to flee and bear the responsibility for children, the elderly, and the family's overall sustenance.
- The United Nations Population Fund has highlighted that "the face of displacement is female," emphasizing the gender-specific impact of displacement on women's physical and mental health.
- Refugee women face numerous stressors, including the loss of family members, the difficulties of camp life, changes in family dynamics, limited access to community networks, and decreased safety.
- Prolonged conflicts, shifts in gender roles post-conflict, the breakdown of traditional social support systems, and the economic challenges associated with displacement increase the risk of gender-based violence, including practices like transactional sex.
- This heightened exposure to physical and sexual abuse makes refugee women particularly vulnerable to psychological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression.
- Displaced women are twice as likely to experience PTSD and over four times more likely to suffer from depression compared to their male counterparts. For instance, a study in Darfur, Sudan found that 72% of displaced women suffered from PTSD and general distress due to traumatic events and the harsh conditions in camps.
- Evidence shows that female refugees are at a greater risk of developing mental health issues than their male counterparts.
- Social and gender inequalities, especially in patriarchal societies, often lead to the experiences of displaced women being overlooked. This lack of recognition, or epistemic injustice, means their conditions often go unnoticed.
- Refugee women with psychological vulnerabilities also face stigma and isolation. Due to limited financial resources, refugee families often prioritize physical health over mental health and men's health over women's.
- Consequently, displaced women with psychosocial disabilities rarely receive the support they need. Mental health service use is reported to be lower among refugees than among the local population and lower among women than men.
- The situation is further complicated in patriarchal societies like India, where community participation is largely male-dominated, leaving refugee women isolated and without a platform to voice their concerns.
- The stigma surrounding psychosocial disabilities also limits their access to information. The mental health services available to them, often through government hospitals with long wait times or unregulated non-governmental organizations, are typically sought only when issues have escalated significantly.
- When seeking these limited services, refugee women face additional challenges such as stigma, shame, communication barriers, and a lack of mental health literacy and awareness of available resources
2.Conventions on refugees
- The 1951 Refugee Convention: This is the cornerstone of international refugee protection. Its main points include:
- Defines who is a refugee
- Outlines refugees' rights
- Establishes the principle of non-refoulement (not forcing refugees to return to a country where they face serious threats)
- Details the obligations of states
- The 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees: This protocol removed geographical and temporal restrictions from the 1951 Convention. Initially, the Convention was limited to protecting European refugees after World War II. The 1967 Protocol made it applicable worldwide.
- The 1969 OAU (Organization of African Unity) Convention: This expanded the definition of refugee in Africa to include those fleeing external aggression, occupation, foreign domination, or events seriously disturbing public order.
- The 1984 Cartagena Declaration: While not legally binding, this declaration expanded the refugee definition in Latin America to include people fleeing generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive human rights violations, or other circumstances seriously disturbing public order.
- The 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants: This reaffirmed the importance of the international refugee regime and contained commitments to strengthen and enhance mechanisms to protect people on the move.
- The 2018 Global Compact on Refugees: This is a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing. It aims to ease pressures on host countries, enhance refugee self-reliance, expand access to third-country solutions, and support conditions in countries of origin for safe return.
3. India's role on Refugees
- The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) acknowledges that "psychosocial disability" arises from long-term mental or intellectual impairments, which, when combined with various barriers, can impede full and effective participation in society. It ensures a wide range of rights for affected individuals.
- The UNCRPD also recognizes that "women and girls with disabilities face multiple forms of discrimination" and requires measures to guarantee their "full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms" (Article 6). These rights must be protected for all individuals without discrimination (Article 5).
- India ratified the UNCRPD and subsequently enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWDA), which offers similar protections to people with disabilities.
- While the term "psychosocial disability" is not yet formally used in India's legal language, "mental illness" is defined as a significant disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that severely impairs judgment, behavior, the ability to recognize reality, or the capacity to meet everyday demands.
- Individuals with "mental illness" are recognized as a category of persons with disabilities under the RPWDA and are entitled to various rights, including access to healthcare, which must be free of barriers and prioritized in terms of attention and treatment (Section 25).
- The RPWDA also requires the state to ensure that women with disabilities fully enjoy their rights on an equal basis with others (Section 4).
- However, refugee women with psychosocial disabilities are often excluded from these protections simply because they are not Indian nationals. This exclusion is due to several factors, including the legal and administrative framework's failure to include non-nationals in the distribution of rights and services, as well as social stigma, discrimination, lack of awareness, language barriers, and financial constraints.
- The Supreme Court of India has consistently upheld the inherent right to life under Article 21, which includes the right to health, for refugees. However, access to healthcare services for refugees is extremely limited, mainly confined to government hospitals, and they are excluded from most public health and nutrition programs available to citizens.
- Private healthcare is generally unaffordable for them. As a result, without explicit provisions extending the protections of the RPWDA to refugees with disabilities or safeguarding their rights under the UNCRPD (Articles 6, 11, and 18), refugee women with psychosocial disabilities or mental illness, despite having the right to health, are often unable to access it. This situation not only violates their right to life, as upheld by the Court, but also undermines the intent and mandate of the UNCRPD
4. Conclusion
India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and lacks specific domestic laws concerning refugees, particularly those with disabilities. Considering the significant refugee population within the country, it is essential to establish a standardized legal framework that aligns with India’s international obligations. This need is further highlighted by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which focuses on empowering vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities and refugees.
To ensure these guarantees are upheld, it is vital to include refugees with disabilities in relevant policies and programs in a manner that is accessible to them. Additionally, effective policy-making requires the collection of detailed data on their health conditions, which calls for efficient and systematic processes for their identification and registration
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Mains Practice Questions
1.Discuss the implications of India not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. In light of India's significant refugee population, suggest a framework that could be adopted to address the needs of refugees, particularly those with disabilities
2.Examine the challenges in extending legal protections and welfare benefits to refugees with disabilities in India. How can India ensure that its international obligations towards vulnerable populations, including refugees, are fulfilled?
3.Analyze the specific vulnerabilities faced by refugee women with psychosocial disabilities. How can India’s policy framework be reformed to ensure adequate mental health support and protection for these individuals?
4.“The face of displacement is female.” Discuss the gendered impact of displacement on mental health among refugees, with a particular focus on India. How can policies be designed to address the psychosocial needs of displaced women?
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