Delhi assembly elections: Hindu refugees from Pakistan vote for first time in capital | India News

NEW DELHI: At a polling booth in north Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tilla, Reshma pressed the button on an electronic voting machine on Wednesday with a sense of pride as a smile spread across her face.
For the first time in her life, the 50-year-old woman cast her vote – not just to choose a candidate, but for her family’s future.
Reshma is one of 186 Pakistani Hindu refugees who, after years of uncertainty, exercised their voting right for the first time in Delhi Assembly polls, marking a powerful moment in their journey from statelessness to citizenship.
They all got Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Dharamveer Solanki, president of Pakistani Hindu refugee community, expressed hope that their struggles would lessen.
“Now, we won’t have to constantly change our location. We will finally get permanent homes and a stable means of livelihood,” he said.
Solanki said that people from our community were so excited that they queued up outside the polling booth in Majnu Ka Tilla – a resettlement colony for the refugees.
“I have lived here for 17 years but today, for the first time, I truly feel like I am part of Hindustan. Now I have hope that my children will get a better life,” Chandrama said.
For decades, thousands of Pakistani Hindus have sought refuge in India, fleeing religious persecution. Many settled in Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tila, living in makeshift shelters, and taking up daily wage work. Yashoda, 27, was the first to receive Indian citizenship in her group. Today, standing in a queue at the polling booth, she could hardly contain her excitement.
“We have spent years working as daily wage labourers, struggling to survive. Now that we have Indian citizenship, we hope for proper jobs, homes, and a dignified life” she said.
On March 11, 2024, Central govt announced the implementation of CAA, 2019, paving the way for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before Dec 31, 2014, to obtain Indian citizenship. pti