“Akilesh Yadav-ji had assured us that even if a needle was damaged we would get Rs.50,000 and if everything was destroyed Rs.500,000”, said Yamin Hamid, a survivor of Muzaffarnagar riots, 2013. Hamid claimed that when the government had started announcing names of those who were to be compensated, his name never came up. “When I started running behind government officials they said that they had already compensated for my father. But my father had died 40 years back. It’s been four years now, my family and I have lost everything and we’ve still not been compensated”, said Hamid.

On this very day, four years ago, the riots in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli district in UP erupted with clashes between the Hindu-Muslim communities living in the area. The riots claimed more than 60 lives and left 92 injured. It also displaced over 50,000 people, many of whom who are still not rehabilitated or compensated, as promised.

“On September 8, 2013 my grandfather was killed, my mother severely injured and our house was set on fire. My family had to flee the village immediately. After the riots, we had a lot of hope on the government but so far we have got anything”, said Firdosh, a young woman from Muzaffarnagar.

To mark the fourth anniversary of the horrific violence that disrupted so many lives, Amnesty International India hosted at event on September 8 2017 called Nowhere to Go: The Broken Promises to the Displaced of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, at The Press Club of India in New Delhi. The event was held to show solidarity with the survivors of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli riots of 2013.

According to the research conducted by Amnesty International India and Afkar India Foundation, an NGO based in Shamli, nearly 200 families who were displaced are yet to receive the compensation they were promised by the Uttar Pradesh state government. These internally displaced persons were supposed to be protected under the international human law and standards. Adequate housing, water, sanitation and medical services are meant to be provided to the displaced communities as soon as possible.

When asked if Amnesty and Afkar had tried to reach out and discuss the report with the Government, Smriti Singh, senior media officer at Amnesty International India said, “We did try to speak to different government officials. Akram’s organization, with whom we’ve done this report, has constantly been filing RTI’s asking for what happened to the compensation and why it hasn’t arrived. So far they’ve not received a single response”, she said.

The event began with a screening of Muavza (Compensation) a film by Nakul Singh Sawhney. Sawhney’s first film on the UP riots, Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai, realsed in 2015, was a detailed account of the causes and immediate aftermath of what happened in September 2013 in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. In Muavza Nakul revisits three displaced members of the riots to recount what life has been for them in the past three years.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion. The panel consisted of Smriti Singh, Nakul Sawhney, Yamin Hamid, Firdosh, Akram Akhtar, member of Afkar India Foundation and Zaika Soman from the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.