The economic status of Sri Lankan and Tibetan refugees in India

Abstract

Refugees living in India are free to safeguard their cultural identities and linguistic differentials. They are also being provided shelter, education, and livelihood opportunities. They are being trained by various NGOs to generate income. However, there is no uniformity in terms of securing their rights. For instance, Tibetan have been given rights and legally entitled to live in India whereas several refugee communities are not entitled to live in India. However, still many refugee communities are living in India on the mercy of government with different social, economic, and political support of state. The refugees are engaged in various economic and livelihood activities across the country, but some of them have better access and support from government and other state agents whereas some experience trouble. Taking the example of Tibetan and Sri Lankan-Tamil refugees, one can see both has given legal status to live in the country but both the communities lack the uniformity of law because Indian government do not have uniform law to deal with refugee crisis. However, both refugee communities – Tibetan and Sri Lankan – have been engaged in different economic activities to survive in India. This chapter aims to elaborate the comparative evaluation of ‘Uniformity of law and Economic Opportunity’ accorded to Tibetan and Sri Lankan Refugees living in India and its practical application and genuineness at field with the help of available secondary literature.