Nineteen-year-old Sheikh S. from Mehndi Kuva, Shahpur, slum quarters in Ahmedabad, explained the long-term consequences of the attacks on children's education and on the livelihood of affected families:"Mein bataoon Didi" (Shall I tell you?), volunteers a nine-year-old, "Balatkaar ka matlab jab aurat ko nanga karte hain aur phir use jala deta hain." (Rape is when a woman is stripped naked and then burnt) And then looks fixedly at the floor. Only a child can tell it like it is. For this is what happened again and again in Naroda Patia - women were stripped, raped and burnt. Burning has now become an essential part of the meaning of rape.109
Sheikh added that in the looting and burning of his home, his education certificates and other valuables were also destroyed: "All my education certificates and medical reports that were in a suitcase were also destroyed. I have a blood disease and need those reports."111All the children's education has been disrupted. All businesses are closed. All savings are gone. My parents are so old they cannot go back to work. I will surely have to leave my studies now and go to work. I was studying in the 11th standard. Still we won't get the government jobs, those are given to Hindus. We will have to do labor.110
In addition to destruction of educational
records, students have been attacked while going to school. An eighteen-year-old
student in Bharuch was pulled off a rickshaw and hit on the head and killed
while returning home after taking a board exam.112
In Modasa, the college-aged son of a police inspector was stabbed and killed.113
The violence has also led to school exams being postponed in Ahmedabad,
Vadodara, Bharuch, and Modasa.114
In addition, at Gujarat University, exams have not yet been completed because
mobs have been successful in disrupting exams. The school plans on completing
exams by having police vans stationed in sensitive areas.115
There are also disturbing reports that the same groups which collected
information on Muslim shops and residences in preparation for attacks,
are now openly collecting information on the number of Muslim children
in each school in order to intimidate Muslim children from attending.116
Principals of English-medium schools in Gujarat have also been threatened
with violence by VHP members if they did not expel Muslim students from
their institutions. According to one report, parents are being told by
school officials to remove their children from these schools on the grounds
that their safety could not be guaranteed. The tactics are helping to ensure
that Muslim children are confined to madrasas, or Muslim-run religious
schools, where education is imparted in Hindi or Urdu-limiting severely
the students' career prospects.117
107 See "Gujarat inching towards normalcy," Times of India, March 6, 2002. See also, "One killed, curfew imposed in Ahmedabad, about 20,000 arrested," Press Trust of India, March 15, 2002; Rupak Sanyal, "Volunteers Bury 186 Unclaimed Bodies of Muslims in Mass Burial," Associated Press, March 6, 2002; Kim Parker, "Common Scars Can't Heal Hatred in India," Chicago Tribune, March 8, 2002; Beth Duff-Brown, "Residents offer shelter from `shameful' riots-Courageous Hindus harbour Muslims as death toll tops 540," Toronto Star, March 5, 2002.
108 Rupak Sanya, "Unrecognizable bodies of Indian children go unclaimed in morgues," Associated Press, March 11, 2002.
109 Citizens' Initiative, "The Survivors Speak."
110 Human Rights Watch interview, Sheikh S., Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
111 Ibid.
112 "4 Killed in Police Firing in Bharuch, Modasa," Times of India. March 22, 2002.
113 Ibid.
114 "Board Exams Continue Amid Tension," Times of India, March 22, 2002.
115 "Police to Help Conduct GU Exams," Times of India, April 8, 2002
116 Vinay Menon, "Muslim School Kids Targeted in Gujarat," Hindustan Times, April 6, 2002.
117 S.N.M. Abdi, "Hindu hoodlums warn school heads to remove Muslims," South China Morning Post, April 9, 2002.