AT A polling booth in Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tilla, Reshma pressed the button on an electronic voting machine on Wednesday with a sense of pride as a smile spread across her face. For the first time in her life, the 50-year-old woman cast her vote – not just to choose a candidate, but for her family’s future. Reshma is one of 186 Pakistani Hindu refugees who, after years of uncertainty, exercised their voting right for the first time in the Delhi Assembly polls, marking a powerful moment in their journey from statelessness to citizenship.

 

They all got Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Dharamveer Solanki, president of the Pakistani Hindu refugee community, expressed hope that their struggles would lessen. “Now, we won’t have to constantly change our location. We will finally get permanent homes and a stable means of livelihood,” he said. Solanki said that people from our community were so excited that they queued up outside the polling booth in Majnu Ka Tilla -- a resettlement colony for the refugees.

 

“I have lived here for 17 years but today, for the first time, I truly feel like I am part of Hindustan,” Chandrama said as she became emotional. “After a long struggle, now I have hope that my children will get a better life,” she added. For decades, thousands of Pakistani Hindus have sought refuge in India, fleeing religious persecution. Many settled in Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tila, living in makeshift shelters, and taking up daily wage work. Twenty seven-year-old Yashoda was the first to receive Indian citizenship in her group and even had the chance to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Today, standing in a queue at the polling booth, she could hardly contain her excitement.