{"id":115523,"date":"2024-06-20T19:16:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T13:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/?post_type=editorial-analysis&#038;p=115523"},"modified":"2024-06-21T20:24:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T14:54:13","slug":"decades-of-uncertainty-for-tibetans","status":"publish","type":"editorial-analysis","link":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/editorial-analysis\/decades-of-uncertainty-for-tibetans","title":{"rendered":"Decades of Uncertainty for Tibetans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neither foreigners nor refugees. More than 60 years after <\/span><b>Tibetans arrived in India <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the face of Chinese occupation, their <\/span><b>status is in a quandary.<\/b><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"width: 100%; border-style: solid; border-color: #000000; background-color: rgba(184, 165, 217, 0.53); text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Relevancy for Prelims:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees, registration certificates (RCs),\u00a0 Foreigners Registration Act, 1946, Registration of Foreigners Rule, Major concentration of Tibetan refugees,\u00a0 Citizenship Act, 1955 etc.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Relevancy for Mains:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Socio-political and legal challenges faced by Tibetan refugees in India, etc.<\/span><\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Decades of Uncertainty for Tibetans<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>1959, thousands of Tibetans <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">arrived in India in the wake of the <\/span><b>flight of the Dalai Lama.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"vc_button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pw.live\/batches\/upsc\/pw-only-ias?utm_source=seo+upsc+batch&#038;utm_medium=seo+upsc&#038;utm_campaign=seo&#038;utm_id=upsc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Enroll now for UPSC Online Classes<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government provided<\/span><b> asylum and assistance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> towards temporary settlement.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While they are third-generation settlers now, the future of the Tibetan movement, India\u2019s citizenship laws and India not being part of the<\/span><b> 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> complicate the issue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To live in India, they must obtain<\/span><b> registration certificates (RCs) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">applicable to other foreigners under the<\/span><b> Foreigners Registration Act, 1946 and the Registration of Foreigners Rule.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For travelling abroad and entering from Nepal, another set of documents \u2014<\/span><b> Identity Certificate (IC) and Special Entry Permits (SEP) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 are required.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2016, the <\/span><b>Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> changed the norms, making the RC renewal process online and <\/span><b>relaxing the period of renewal to five years.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Officials and Tibetan activists point out that in the past two decades, there has been a record <\/span><b>migration of Tibetans to foreign countries.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to \u201c<\/span><b>The Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d formulated by the MHA, the Tibetan population in India stood at 1.10 lakh in 2009.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><b>MHA\u2019s 2022-23 Annual Report, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cper the latest Census 2019 conducted by <\/span><b>Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the population of <\/span><b>Tibetan refugees in India was 73,404.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Union government formulated the policy in consultation with The<\/span><b> Dalai Lama\u2019s CTRC.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a need to revise the policy in the wake of problems faced by the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2015, the<\/span><b> National Democratic Alliance (NDA) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">government sanctioned a scheme of providing a <\/span><b>grant-in-aid of \u20b940 crore<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the CTRC for five years. The scheme was extended for another five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>A major concentration of Tibetan refugees<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is in Karnataka (21,324), Himachal Pradesh (14,952 ), Arunachal Pradesh (4,780 ), Uttarakhand (4,829), West Bengal (3,076), and Ladakh (6,989), the MHA report said.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere is a creeping<\/span><b> sense of uncertainty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about their future among young Tibetans.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inevitably concerns are about what will happen to them when HHDL is no more as all hopes are centered around him.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result of migration of Tibetans for a variety of reasons, especially young Tibetans from India, the <\/span><b>community has shrunk in numbers.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the last elections, the <\/span><b>Tibetan Parliament (in-exile), <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">could have shown greater <\/span><b>sense of unity, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and these divisions add to people\u2019s concerns\u201d, said Amitabh Mathur, former adviser to the MHA on Tibetan affairs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite several initiatives, a few<\/span><b> problems remain unrectified.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He added that processes governing<\/span><b> acquiring a document to travel abroad <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">remain slow.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Tibetan Legal Association (TLA)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> says on its website that since 2013, the ICs could be applied online.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn the last few years, the process for <\/span><b>obtaining ICs has become far more difficult<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with delays of two years increasingly common place and some taking as long as three years to be processed.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such significant delays of between one and three years in being granted ICs, inevitably cause <\/span><b>severe difficulties for Tibetans<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> trying to plan international trips for school or other purposes and opportunities,\u201d TLA said.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe are<\/span><b> recognised as foreigners living in India.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Everything is temporary, we cannot buy properties.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have <\/span><b>lost half of our population<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to foreign countries where they acquire citizenship,\u201d Tibetan activist and poet Tenzin Tsundue said.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>\u201cIndian citizenship comes with a caveat, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the government says we will have to give up the benefits and our rights to visit the settlements camps.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many will not be able to visit their parents who live in <\/span><b>camps without permits<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> issued by the government agencies,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the<\/span><b> Citizenship Act, 1955<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> states that those born in India between January 26, 1950 and on or before July 1, 1987, are citizens by birth, there are few Tibetans who acquired Indian citizenship after moving court.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a series of court judgments, the <\/span><b>Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2018 issued comprehensive guidelines to issue <\/span><b>passports to Tibetan refugees<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, subject to police verification.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr. Tsundue added that no textbooks teach about the<\/span><b> Tibetan movement.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhile we owe gratitude to the government, there is little awareness, that India has <\/span><b>recognised Tibet as part of China.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was some buzz about the cause after the<\/span><b> 2020 Galwan border<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> clash but that is not enough. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji has not even met the Dalai Lama,\u201d the Tibetan activist said.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An<\/span><b> All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet (APIPFT)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that was active during the 1970s was reconstituted under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The APIPFT, mainly comprising Rajya Sabha members that remained inactive since 2011, was <\/span><b>revived in December 2014.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"vc_button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/store.pw.live\/govt-entrance-exams\/upsc-books\/upsc-previous-year-papers?utm_source=SEO&#038;utm_medium=PW+Live&#038;utm_campaign=UPSC+Previous+Year+Papers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check Out Previous Years Papers From PW Store<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tibetan refugees in India face <\/span><b>prolonged uncertainty and bureaucratic hurdles,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> highlighting the <\/span><b>need for policy reforms <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to secure their rights and future in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 99.9974%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"border-style: solid; border-color: #000000; background-color: rgba(184, 165, 217, 0.53); text-align: left; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Mains Question:\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/mains-answer-writing\/elucidate-indias-historical-and-contemporary-approach-towards-refugees-how-does-this-approach-align-with-indias-humanitarian-values-10-marks-150-words\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Q. Elucidate India\u2019s historical and contemporary approach towards refugees. How does this approach align with India\u2019s humanitarian values? 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More than 60 years after Tibetans arrived in India in the face of Chinese occupation, their status is in a quandary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":115672,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"paper-wise":[],"subject":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/115523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/editorial-analysis"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/115523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115525,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/115523\/revisions\/115525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115523"},{"taxonomy":"paper-wise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper-wise?post=115523"},{"taxonomy":"subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subject?post=115523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}