Education in Exile: An Indian Experience

Abstract

The modern global refugee regime has evolved, by and large, into a “non-entree regime”. During the closing years of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, many states have resorted to restrictionism policies, blatantly blocking the entry of refugees and asylum-seekers into their sovereign territory. Contrary to this restrictive and extraterritorial control adopted by most states that are parties to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, India has had a long tradition of hosting refugees/asylum-seekers who had been persecuted in their home states, where their life and living had become almost impossible for sheer survival. Yet, India remains a non-signatory state to the Refugee Convention, and it does not have a scripted refugee protection legal framework. The analysis in this paper shows widely varied response patterns by both Government of India and the UNHCR. The provision of education, in terms of access and quality, constitutes a “crucial” factor in offering the refugees much-needed autonomy and development, which is considered their “core” right in exile. In this regard, UNHCR’s operational wavelength remains bound by India’s strategic interventions. This paper attempts to explore and examine the initiatives taken by both Government of India and UNHCR with reference to discrimination and delegation in a comparative perspective.