In Bodella, west Delhi, where a large number of the Chin people [ethnic minorities forced to flee Myanmar after the rise of the military junta] live, most of the houses are in ramshackle condition. Despite appalling states of disrepair, the rents are relatively high, and mostly beyond the means of the tenants. The landlords also tend to be abusive and exploitative, picking fights on the slightest pretext, beating up the Chin women and cutting off the water or electric supply to teach the defaulters a lesson for their delay in clearing dues. Some of these families have been forced to move as many as 10 times in the few years they have lived in Delhi. The squalid lodgings, along with the lack of nutritious diet and access to proper healthcare, leave the Chin people physically vulnerable to a range of diseases.
Yet, in spite of the daily inhumanities, routine atrocities, and ceaseless intimidations, these broken spirits refuse to give up. Families are parted, and some people die on the hard journey to India. Others come together in the foreign land, daring to get married, start families, and fight back. Children are born and loved ones mourned. These photographs holds up a mirror to the reality of lives that most of us fail to notice or do not care enough to engage with.
Excerpt and images from I Often Think of Those I Left Behind: The Chin Refugees of Delhi by Shivani Dass