kokrajhar assam the food is running out children are falling ill her only saree is fraying and so is her spirit rambles zohra bewa or zohra the widow as she introduces herself stepping out of her makeshift home a blue tarpaulin sheet propped up by bamboos displaced on july 24 when her home in sapkata village was burned down the middleaged woman and her children joined the human tide of more than 48 lakh refugees swept into hundreds of relief camps across three districts of western assam the largest displacement seen in the country in recent times today the number of people in relief camps has come down to 36000odd people the emptying of the camps has led the outside world believe the worst is over even the government has showcased this as evidence of successful rehabilitation downplaying the more revealing statistic only 5252 families have been given financial assistance by way of the official rehabilitation grant counting 10 members in each family the number of beneficiaries comes to just 52520 people a fraction of those affected by the violence to start with only those whose houses were burned or damaged have been considered eligible for rehab assistance a cheque of rs 20700 three bundles with 7 tin sheets each four tarpaulin sheets eight poles of bamboo and a month of food rations it is bad enough that the grant is barely enough to rebuild homes and lives say people worse many who lost homes have had to go without it since they do not own land an additional eligibility criteria insisted by the bodoland territorial council in the first round of rehabilitation but what is the worst of all they point out several thousands who left the relief camps keen to get back in time for the harvest season havent made it back and find themselves stranded in between zohra is one of them after nearly three months in kathalguri relief camp when she trekked back to her village in late october she found her neighbours had propped up tents in a clearing outside the village their quarter of the village was not safe they cautioned her since it faced bodo settlements better to live huddled with other muslims soon a hundred tents had sprung up in the clearing a makeshift camp of sorts in horiyapet village the makeshift settlement is even larger a thousand tents scattered in the open their blue and black plastic sheets glinting in the afternoon sun sheltering people from as many as six villages unlike the government relief camp they left behind where supplies of food and medicines trickled in regularly drinking water tanks were chlorinated latrines were fumigated and ngos unloaded bundles of clothes every now and then in the makeshift camps the people have been left to fend for themselves we were given 10 days of ration but thats over says sobor ali who lives in sapkata makeshift camp we are trying to make do by selling bamboo