We used to think 10 times before stepping out of our houses: Afghan Sikh woman recounts life under Taliban rule

Manpreet Kaur, a mother of two, rarely stepped out of her house in Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year and her children hardly had any idea of the world outside.

• Pramod Thomas
• 07 August, 2022

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By: Pramod Thomas

Their grim existence for nearly a year changed on August 3, when they arrived in India as part of a group of 28 Afghan Sikhs who were flown in from Kabul with the help of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the Indian World Forum and the central government

Recounting her ordeal of living under the Taliban rule, Kaur said, “Being a minority, there was a constant fear of being targeted. The Sikh and Hindu families in Kabul have been spending sleepless nights. The places of worship are not safe. The Gurdwara Karta-E-Parwan was attacked by terrorists on June 18.”

“We used to think 10 times before stepping out of our houses. For our children, going out was out of the question. If we had to step out, we covered our faces,” she said

She claimed that most of the minorities in Afghanistan have no access to education as sending children to schools means “risking their lives”

“If a child goes to an educational institute, they will be harassed there. Those who want to study mostly come to India,” Kaur said

Taranjit Singh, another Afghan Sikh who arrived in India on August 3, has a three-year-old son suffering from a heart ailment. He said due to minimum access to hospitals, his son could not get proper treatment in Kabul

“We are hoping to get him treated here in India,” Singh told PTI

Activist Kavita Krishnan said the Centre should have a policy of offering citizenship to such refugees in India and providing them work

“Our country is more than capable of just offering citizenship to these refugees. Not just the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus but all refugees should be offered this help by the government

“The Centre does not arrange facilities for refugees. Even when they were compelled to do so for the Tamil refugees, their camps were extremely ill-equipped. If the Centre treated the refugees with respect and compassion, it could easily provide work for them,” Krishnan told PTI

She alleged that refugees are only “talking points” and “propaganda” for the Centre

“The Centre should understand that the refugees, with whatever work they do here, are contributing to the GDP of this country,” Krishnan said.

(PTI)