CONTEXT
Increasing trends of religious fundamentalism and terrorism in Pakistan have had made the minorities more vulnerable to be easily victimized of religious persecution thus are frightened and continue fleeing outside the country. The Hindu minorities- predominately marginalized schedule casts & tribes- prefer migrating to India. In India, due to bitter bilateral relations between the two countries, the prevalent legal regime treats these migrants as Pak nationals and has kept almost their basic rights barred until they get citizenship; which in many cases lingered on up to 14 years or even above. There is no any refugee-support program existed, thus it results posing grave risks on the survival and developmental rights of the already marginalized migrants. This long-lasting appalling situation further leads to push overwhelm migrants in vicious circle of extreme poverty making them retarded at an extent so that they couldn’t able to develop themselves even after attaining the citizenship rights.
INTRODUCTION TO UNIVERSAL JUST & ACTION SOCIETY
Aimed at helping the Hindu Refugees came from Pakistan and staying in Rajasthan, the Pak Visthapit Sangh (PVS) was set-up in 1999 by a migrant activist Hindu Singh Sodha with a group of other migrants. Later in 2005 the PVS further transferred into Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS) and again in 2008 it became UJAS which was then registered- under societies act of 1860- as a non-governmental organization under the name Universal Just Action Society (UJAS). Thus, SLS and UJAS are synonymous. UJAS serves as an NGO with international recognition, while the refugee communities who at grassroots level are federating part of the organization, most commonly refer to that community tier of the organization as Seemant Lok Sangathan. In Hindi, ujas means “brightness” or “light coming out of darkness.” Universal Just Action Society (UJAS) aims to shed light on a dark issue, one that is often not addressed without our presence in this field. UJAS demands justice for persecuted Pakistani refugees by taking action through public hearings, empowerment of refugee communities, and lobbying at local, state, and national levels. Since, more than a decade UJAS/SLS has been working for the pre & post citizenship rights of Pak migrants & their host communities.
UJAS CRAFTS CENTER
UJAS has been engaged in diverse array of interventions for protecting the pre/post citizenship rights, development and integration of the Pak minority migrants’ community in India. Part of its livelihoods development thematic interventions the conception of UJAS Crafts Center is an innovative initiative for empowering the migrant-artisans and promoting their crafts and creativity. It aims to contribute in uplifting the migrant-artisans’ fragile livelihoods, preventing their economic exploitation and upholding the cultural heritage.
ABOUT MIGRANT-ARTISANS & THEIR CRAFTS
Part of migrant-families, the numerous skilled hands exist which are familiar enough in making range of traditional crafts & artisanal produces that they have had been using either for alternative household income & domestic-chores or for making gift commodities. These skilled migrant-hands can make range of crafts included wood & wrought-iron crafts, brass-crafts, diverse-embroidery making/ fabric/patch work/ quilt-making, stitching & needle work, tie & dye work, leather goods making and traditional as well as contemporary jewelry making etcetera. Out of all the above craft-skills of the migrant-artisans, the four crafts- included wood, iron, leather and embroidery work- are being significantly exercised by the migrants in local handicrafts market with extreme exploitation by middle-man or exporters. It is interesting that in the wood crafts of Jodhpur, there is overwhelming contribution of migrant-carpenters who mainly had migrated in 1971 war. Simultaneously, in rural western Rajasthan there is significant role of migrant-women in contributing the embroidery/fabric handicrafts market. Though, most of the migrant- artisans are migrating from desert and it’s edging parts from Pakistan which earlier, in the times of undivided India, were parts of Thar Desert of Rajasthan, thus the crafts and culture of migrants, in a way, have the same origin and roots. However, after partition the artisan-communities and their crafts, back in Pakistan, couldn’t attain much attention to be developed and marketed in line up with the need of emerging global marketplace. Moreover, on the arrival in India, at once, the migrant-artisans situation gets further worsen due to some of the critical problems they have inevitably to face at threshold including migrants-non-friendly legal regime limiting their work environment/liberty in India and having less acquaintance with prevalent market channels & sectoral entities as well as contemporary crafts’ designs & advanced tools, investment un-affordability and burden of family responsibilities at very new place. Thus, the UJAS Crafts Center Initiative deems imperative that the migrant-artisans should be provided with special assistance for their empowerment through skills development and promotion of their crafts and creativity as well as just-marketability in order to keep their craft-skills dependent livelihoods sustained.
VISION
Migrant-artisans have access to a robust platform offer them imparting marketable skills and providing a viable marketplace as well as fair & just returns on their crafts
MISSION
UJAS works to protect the rights of vulnerable & displaced persons and their host communities in need. It strives for extending assistance to meet immediate legal & humanitarian needs and contribute to durable solutions. The core of organizational mission is to aid the persons of concern in obtaining justice by raising awareness, community empowerment and influencing the government to provide them with legal rights. Particularly, the advocacy remains a vital instrument enduring to ensure that pre & post citizenship rights of the persons of the concern are upheld. UJAS is rights based organization and is committed to the principles of humanity, neutrality, independence, and impartiality.
OBJECTIVES
APPROACH
INTERVENTIONS
