Abdul Kalam Azad
Assam NRC Draft: How Women in Char Areas Were Left High and Dry
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The news of four million people being excluded from the final draft of Assam NRC and pushing them to the verge of being stateless has caught the attention of various stakeholders across the country and beyond. The media has also brought out cases of large number of well-established individuals, including a former Chief Minister of Assam, family members of former President of India, family members of former deputy speaker of Assam Assembly, number of armed forces personnel who couldn’t make it to the final NRC draft. But the stories of fear and anxiety of the marginalised and vulnerable sections have still remained unreported.
Among Muslim dominated areas in the state, Kalgachiya in Barpeta district is one of the most affluent with a high literacy rate. According to community leaders and few government officials, only a nominal percentage of applicants have been excluded from the final draft. People who are capable of raising their voice and have access to proper documentation were able to apply and hence made it to the NRC draft.
A visibly anxious boatman said that while his name is there on the list, his wife has not been included in the draft NRC. Most passengers in the boat also described stories of how their family members, mostly women and children, are not in the list.
On the bank of the river, in a crowded small tea stall everyone was speculating about the reason of rejection. Their major apprehension is that the panchayat certificate provided by married women to prove linkage with the legacy holder has been rejected. Gani Dewani, an influential community leader, said, “Only 15-20 families have all members in the list. NRC has divided families with some members being included and others excluded.”
The NRC authority, concerned of ‘breaching of privacy’ of the excluded, hasn’t made the reason of rejection public. Those rejected will have to file another application to get to know the reason for being excluded from NRC.
The discussion in the char village centred around the panchayat certificate and delayed birth certificate. They said initially these certificates were accepted by the NRC authority but later they declined to accept birth certificates and started scrutinising panchayat certificates “strictly”.
Fifty years old Moriyam Begum lives in a tin-roofed house surrounded by the jute and paddy fields in the char. Illiterate Moriyam was trying to find a particular document with the help of her 12-year-old daughter from a pile of papers scattered on the floor. “Keeping documents in order is a challenge,” she murmured.
Almost every year char dwellers experience flood and erosion and often have to move from one place to another. In the last two decades, Moriyam has shifted her residence thrice often taking shelter in the temporary relief camp during the flood. Keeping valuable documents safely becomes a major challenge for these people who are often labelled as illegal immigrants.
Though her husband and eldest son’s name appeared in the draft, she along with two of her daughters and one son were left out from the final draft NRC. Since Moriyam doesn’t have any admissible education documents (only board certificate is accepted), she provided a panchayat certificate.
More than 4.7 million married women submitted panchayat certificate as linkage document out of which 1.7 million women were brought under “original inhabitants” status, a privileged category and were exempted from the stringent verification process. However, Muslims and Bengali Hindus, didn’t fall under the category thus despite being from one of the most marginalised social groups, Muslim women from the char areas had to go through a stringent verification process. Moriyam is one of the 2.9 million “unfortunate” women who submitted panchayat certificate.
It is speculated that most of these Muslim women are from char areas of Assam, which accommodates nearly 10 per cent of Assam’s population. There are more than 2,200 river island villages spread over 14 districts in Assam, which are geographically plagued with floods and erosion.
As per the last survey by Assam the government in 2002-03, as many as 68% of char people live under the below poverty line (BPL) and over 80 per cent of them are illiterate. Assam Human Development Report (2014) says that the Mean Year of Schooling (MYS) in char areas is 4.76 years which is the lowest among all marginalised communities in Assam. The abysmally low female literacy rate was one of the reasons of higher number of women submitting panchayat certificate from these areas.
Another reason that is equally responsible for making the char women most vulnerable in the NRC updating process is the feudal legacy and continuance of core patriarchal practices like child marriage. A study conducted by Manoj Goswami says that in char areas the mean age of marriage remains low 17.1 years.
National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 data reveals that in char dominated districts nearly half of the women get married before the age of 18. When women are married off before attaining the age of 18, they miss the opportunity to get enlisted in the voters list in their parental house. In absence of other documents (read educational document), it effectively delinks them from their parents and forces them to use panchayat certificate to prove linkage with parents. If they were married after getting enlisted in the voters list at parental address i.e. after attaining the legal age of marriage, they could have used the voter’s id for linkage
Today, it seems the “masculine state” is hell bent to snatch the citizenship right from women like Moriyam. She hasn’t been able have proper sleep and food ever since the final NRC draft was published. Now her only concern is ‘would they send me to ‘Kalapani’?’ She used the infamous cellular jail in Andaman and Nicobar Island to describe possible detention centres.
Originally published at https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/assam-nrc-draft-how-women-in-char-areas-were-left-high-and-dry-1835325.html
How Sword of NRC is Destroying Families in Assam
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On a soaring summer morning, Ilim Uddin Dewan (50) drove his SUV to the Chenga Circle Office in Barpeta district of Western Assam. He met the circle officer, the executive magistrate of the revenue circle and the designated Circle Registrar of Citizen Registration (CRCR), for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) within the jurisdiction of revenue circle area.
Ilim Uddin, a middle age successful businessman and politician, who fought for assembly seat in 2011, alleged that his wife Mamataz Dewan was harassed in the name of being illegal immigrant from Bangladesh. A case under Foreigners Act was referred by the border police to foreigner’s tribunal in 1997 and the tribunal upheld her Indian citizenship in 2016 after a decade-long legal battle.
The NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela has said time and again through the media that once the alleged foreigner or D voter gets clearance from Foreigners Tribunal and found to be Indian citizen will be included in the NRC. The NRC website also says “D voters can apply for inclusion of their names in the updated NRC. However, a D Voter’s name will only be included in NRC only after getting clearance from the Foreigners Tribunals.”
However, the Circle Registrar of Citizen Registration (CRCR) Rajiv Kumar Das said “My hands are tied; I can’t do anything. We are doing what the state office has instructed us to do. State office has a sent list and asked us to keep those names on hold, I can’t do anything”. As per media report, the NRC authority has blocked 63,000 D voters or doubtful voters.
The officer inquired with his junior officer and confirmed that the database sent by the state office contains her name. “Even though you won the case, I can’t accept the papers,” said Rajiv Kumar and advised Ilim Uddin to contact additional deputy commissioner, who is his supervisor if a person is not satisfied with the officer’s response.
The persons, who have been declared as Indian national by foreigner’s tribunal since 2015, will have to wait till the complete draft is published. They will have to go through the claims and objection process along with those whose name do not appear in the complete draft. A window of one month will be provided for re-examination citizenship documents who wouldn’t figure in the complete draft or someone who is wrongfully included in the list.
How Significant is Doubtful Voters in NRC?
In March 2018, Assam Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary informed that state assembly that as on December 31, 2017, there were 4,85,640 D voters and suspected citizen (2,44,144 D voters and 24,14,96 reference cases), out of which 2,40,583 (1,31,034 D voter and 1,09,549 reference cases) were disposed of. The foreigners’ tribunal has declared over 92,000 persons as foreigner and remaining were able to prove their Indian citizenship.
However, out the 92,000 declared foreigners nearly 15,000 declared foreigners were found to be pre-1971 immigrants, who are treated as Indian citizen as per Assam Accord. Interestingly, over 26,000 cases out of the declared foreigner cases were declared as foreigner through expatriate decree. That means that those 26,000 declared foreigners didn’t appear before the court and court didn’t examine their citizenship credential. On other words, in many cases, those so called declared foreigners even don’t know that the foreigners’ tribunal has declared them as foreign national!
On May 2, the NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela sent memo to all district magistrates to block the name of declared foreigners and their family member’s names entering into the complete draft NRC. The NRC coordinator says that the letter has been issued based on an order given by Gauhati High Court last year. Considering the timing and far reaching and retrospective impact of the letter, the religious and linguistic minority communities perceive it as a ploy to exclude large number of genuine Indian citizen from complete draft and make them vulnerable for torturous battle in the foreigners’ tribunal and augmenting the risk of landing in the detention centre.
However, NRC coordinator has clarified that out of 92000 plus declared foreigner they could have identify only 4259 applications submitted by those declared foreigners. He speculated that the number of family members of the 4259 declared foreigners would be around 50000.
Meanwhile, the decision of excluding the family members of declared foreigners, who have documentary evidence to prove their Indian nationality and whom the NRC updating authority itself had provided the legacy document, not only created public outcry in Assam but also got attention from national and international media as well human rights bodies and human rights defenders.
Opened the Pandora’s Box?
On June 11, four Special Rapporteurs of United Nations Human Rights Council has sent a strong communication to the MEA Sushma Swaraj. The eight pages letter alleged that the order “may lead to the wrongful exclusion of close to two million names from the NRC, without a prior investigation and trial.” The letter also questions the independence and impartial functioning of foreigners’ tribunal and terms it as “so-called foreigners’ tribunal”.
It labelled serious allegation “members of Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam experience increasing pressure from State authorities to declare more persons as foreigners. On 21st June 2017, 19 members of the Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam were dismissed on ground of their under-performance over the last two years. More than 15 additional Tribunal members were issued with a strict warning to increase their efficiency. Considering that tribunal members serve on a contractual basis for two years, which may be extended on a needs and performance”
One of the terminated members of foreigners’ tribunal, on the condition of anonymity said that one of their performance indicators was – how many cased they decided in favour of the state’ or in other word how many cases they declared as foreigners!
In the wake of the controversy regarding the May 2 letter of the NRC coordinator, another important and shocking development is observed. Earlier this year, noted human rights worker and former IAS officer Harsh Mander led the National Human Rights Commission’s Mission to detention centres in Assam as Special Monitor to NHRC. His mission studied the conditions of detainees inside two detention centres in Goalpara and Kokrajhar district of Assam and studied the process of the identifying doubtful voters and functioning of border police who refers cases to foreigners’ tribunal. Harsh Mander submitted the report but NHRC didn’t take any step on his findings and suggestions. He resigned from NHRC as Special Monitor and made his report public.
The report alleges “these detention centres lie on the dark side of both legality and humanitarian principles”. There are nearly 900 hindred declared foreigners who are detained in six detention centres across the state. Some of them are detained for nearly a decade. Their families have been separated; they don’t have any right to payroll, means of communication with the family members. There is no manual or proper guideline for the administration of these detention centres. In one hand the detainees are treated as convicted criminals on the other hand they are not allowed the basic rights like payroll and wage against which are available to convicted criminals.
Harsh Mander further wrote, “Overall, I am convinced that for a process that can result in the disenfranchisement, indefinite detention or expulsion of a person, the state government needs to ensure due process and, with it, compassion and an understanding of the predicament of persons with a poor education and lack of economic resources and social or political capital.”
However, the Assam government and the NRC authority have not reacted either to UNHRC Special Rapporteurs letter or Harsh Mander’s report.
Changing Narrative
The citizenship tangle in Assam has a long history and many complexities. Apart from the administrative complexities involving multiple agencies, nearly a dozen of Acts, Rules and Accords, numerous state and non-state stakeholders; the complexities of narratives are also emerging.
The narrative of large scale, uninterrupted influx of migrants from Bangladesh causing threat to demography, language and cultural heritage of Assam has been slowly shifting towards the narrative of persecution and mistreatment of genuine Indian citizen who are religious and linguistic minorities in the state of Assam. There is little doubt that the ‘doubtful voter’ and its ecosystem has been the breeding ground for such counter narrative and the May 2 letter issued by NRC authority has given the long awaited exposure to the issue.
This will be interesting to observe how the things get unfolded once the complete draft NRC is published.
Originally published at https://www.news18.com/news/india/despite-valid-documents-my-wife-is-a-doubtful-citizen-how-sword-of-nrc-is-destroying-families-in-assam-1827111.html
United Nation’s Guiding Principles and Internally Displaced Persons of Assam
Assam Legislative Assembly witnessed an unprecedented incident last month on the issues of internally displaced persons of the state. Leader of opposition Mr. Sirajuddin Ajmal raised the issue of IDPs during question hour and asked government to give a statement. Other MLAs of AIUDF also tried to persuade the house to issue internally displaced certificate to protect the IDPs from inhuman atrocities in the name of illegal Bangladeshi immigrant. But it created chaos and speaker Pranab Gogoi cash on the situation and suspended the AIUDF MLAs from the remaining business of the house for the day.
This incident again shows the indifferent, insensitive and careless attitude of the ruling class towards the issues of internally displaced persons of the state. It’s shocking too note that India ranks 11 in the domestic refugee list globally [1] and Assam’s contribution is highest as a state. But till today government doesn’t have any comprehensive policy to deal with the internally displaced persons in the state as well as in the country. After the massive protest and violence in Nandhigram and Singur in West Bengal, central government came up with the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy in 2004. But the policy was formulated keeping in mind the development induced internally displaced persons only [2]. The incident of land acquisition and displacement which smashed the thirty years left front government in West Bengal, but the victims of the displacement are still homeless[3]. On the other hand the said policy remains silence on the issues of natural calamities like flood and erosion induced IDPs.
United Nations has well formulated guiding principles to deal with the issues of internally displaced persons. The United Nations define internally displaced persons as “Persons or group of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or place of habitual residence in particular as a result of or in order to avoid armed conflict, situation of generalized violence, violation of human rights or natural or human made disasters and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border [4]”. No doubt the erosion and flood induced IDPs and ethnic violence induced IDPs of Assam come under the ambit of UN’s definition.
While dealing with right to standard of living of IDPs UN’s Guiding Principle 18 outlines “At the minimum, regardless of the circumstances and without discrimination, competent authorities shall provide internally displaced persons with and ensure safe access to: a) Essential food and potable water; b) Basic shelter and housing; c) Appropriate clothing; and d) Essential medical services and sanitation [5]. But it is observed that the internally displaced persons are most vulnerable and marginalized in the state. They are being excluded from almost all the development initiatives and pro poor programs of the government. The ethnic violence induced IDPs are facing humanitarian crisis in western Assam. Their livelihood and social setup has been destroyed due to displacement. The aged, children and disabled section of these IDPs are severely affected by the inadequate health and medical interventions. It is being regularly reported that children and elderly persons are dying due to lack of medical facilities in the camps of BTAD area of western Assam. Women are forced to compromise with the dignity and privacy due to lack of sanitary facility and shelter. The UN Guiding Principles advocate that the IDPs should not be discriminated on the ground of race, religion, ethnicity, property etc [6]. But the situation of ethnic violence induced IDPs of western Assam does not correspond to the policy. They are being discriminated on the ground of land record during rehabilitation process!
On the other hand, the situations of natural calamities i.e. flood and erosion induced IDPs are more grieve, pathetic and having larger impact on the society as well. It is officially estimated that between 1951 to 2000 river Brahmaputra has eroded 4,29,657 hectors of agricultural land of Assam, which is almost 7 percent of total land of the state. This large scale erosion has displaced nearly three million peasants of the state [7]. This huge displacement has resulted forced migration to other parts of the state for livelihoods and shelter. These downtrodden people are being easily targeted by the anti-social elements in the name of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Though UN Guiding Principles says that IDPs has right to liberty of movement and shall be protected from discriminatory arrest [8]; but sometimes they are illegally detained by police also.
The UN Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced also outlines that the IDPs should be protected from any act of violence intended to speared terror among them. But in Assam it is a frequent phenomenon to terrify the IDPs and confines their mobility. Even some portion of media also fuels such insane activity. Which not only deteriotes the conditions of IDPs, but it also affects the internal labour migration within the state. Whereas, internal labour migration is globally acknowledged as a tool to alleviate poverty through cash remittance and to meet MDG (Millennium Development Goal) [9].
In November 2011, IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Geneva) and NRC (Norwegian Refugee Council) published a report on the IDPs of North East India and Assam. The report provided a numbers of recommendations to government of India and state governments of Northeast. It recommended that government of India should pass legislation in accordance with UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The report also recommended to union government to provide a watch body like NHRC, NCW, NCM etc to oversee the issues IDPs. At the same time the report has particularly recommended to government of Assam to systematically assess the situation of Adivasis, Bodos, Muslims and other displaced by violence during 1990 to 2000 and determine the number of people still living in displacement and their specific needs. It asked Assam government to provide adequate support to the displaced according to their needs, which should specially include housing and livelihood assistance as well as education and skill training [10]. But nothing has been materialized so far! Rather IDMC issued IDP alert in august 2012 saying that recent violence has induced another 400000 IDPs [11].
The issues of IPDs are not only confined to Assam or India; it is a global issue. And hopefully, many countries are doing commendable job to protect the right of IDPS and rehabilitating them in a systematic manner. Countries like Azarbaijan, Bonsia, Herzegovina, Colombia, Croatia, Georgia etc have enacted law in accordance with UN Guiding Principles. Question arises, why India can’t afford to adopt UN Guiding Principles to deal with the issues of IDPs? Is it out of context to demand a separate law to protect the IDPs from inhuman atrocities and to uphold their human dignity?
Photo: Sheela Sarma
Media Discrimination Against the Minority Muslims of Assam
Nelson Mandela wrote in his autobiography “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Yes, my younger sister Nisha had never any problem with the minority Muslims. Now, she has become versed to write in her facebook wall “Good Morning to Assamese and Bad Morning to Bangladeshi Miya” (Miya is used as a derogatory term for the minority Muslims, though Miya means respected one) My friend Sameer does not hesitate to give a public call “Aah Oi Ulai Aah” to deport the Bangladeshi Miya. But, just before the violence in western Assam we tried to find a way out to fight the illiteracy, malnutrition, poverty of these people from a single platform. We chalked out a detail plan to make my village a self sufficient one to eradicate labor migration to urban area, install solar lamp and many other ambitious projects. As far as my memory is concerned we never felt to talk about the issue Bangladeshi Miya.
Then, why this dramatic change? Who taught them to hate the innocent minority Muslims of the state. Who amplified the fear and hatred against the these under-privileged poor people of the state. What is the ultimate motive of these hatred? If we look at the history of movement against illegal influx in the state, we found that every time it goes against the minority Muslims of the state. And significantly media played very dirty role in this aspect. Some so called intellectuals become nationalist over-night. They discover innovative ideas to harass the minority Muslims inline with the politicians. Aftermath of the violence in lower Assam one enthusiast executive editor of a so called secular Assamese daily even discovered the theory of ‘Virgin Area’ to protect his motherland! In a television show he suggested to deport the illegal Bangladeshis from the districts like Jorhat immediately. He can’t allow Jorhat to become Dhubri! Doesn’t he alternatively advocated separation of Dhubri from Assam? Every day print and electronic media publicizing the hate propaganda of the politicians, every day they are seeing lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi and trying to create atmosphere for another Assam Agitation. By any means they are trying to persuade the mainstream Assamese people that minorities are the greatest threat to their very existence.
Yes, alarm is ringing for the sleepy Assamese society to wake up and evaluate who are actually facing the threat of existence. Is it mainstream Assamese society or the corrupt politicians and their most obedient media houses? The mainstream Assamese society should not forget the black days Assam Agitation. The Nellie massacre will ashamed the Assamese forever. But what they got? Perhaps nothing more the than the secrete killing! AGP, the offspring of Assam Agitation ruled the state for ten long years, but could not see the lakhs of Bangladeshi, they couldn’t seal the Bangladesh border, they couldn’t update the NRC; for those the fought for six years, lost hundreds of their team mates and the violence killed thousands of innocent people and lakhs were displaced. And the media houses? Their expression carries some pathetic image. It seems that if they do not follow the dictation politicians their family will come to the streets! They can compromise everything to prove their existence. We may take example of G S Road molestation case or mass exodus of NE student and employees from South India. They keep spreading rumor every minutes to nurture the exodus. But they couldn’t find out who managed the special trains to NE, they couldn’t put pressure on the local government to build up confidence among the citizen of NE India, were they intentionally ignoring the dangerous conspiracy behind the exodus. Doubt coins, were they also waiting for a outburst of the anger of about fifty thousand young blood in Assam?
With due sympathy to the victims and condemning the violence by the miscreants on 28th August during Assam Bandh called by AAMSU, it is observed that the minority Muslims of the state were not taking the mainstream Assamese language media easily. The one sided decision to ban AAMSU for three months (Later it minimized to one month) by the media body fueled to maximize the trust deficit between the community and Assamese language print and electronic media. In some minority Muslim dominated areas, even people were thinking to boycott Assamese language media.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark? Why the minorities are becoming sentimental to Assamese language media? Is it justified? Unfortunately, it seems so. It is expected that media should act pro-actively to identify the social evils and put light on the dark side of the society impartially. The media body who imposed ban on AAMSU shown no outrage over the killing of journalist Raihan Nayeem of Dhubri. The media houses in Assam are totally indifferent towards the problems of minority Muslims of the state. The ethnic cleansing in BTAD area got momentum after the statement of L K Advani. Advani may not have the knowledge about Assam and Assamese; but how the media repeated his propaganda like parrot? After the ethnic violence in western Assam thousands of migrated labor from minority dominated area are being harassed by some activists of so called apolitical groups and police as well through out the state. They are forced to flee to their native villages. Shamelessly, the media starts barking that huge numbers of illegal Bangladeshi has disappeared. They publicized thousands of illegal migrants have disappeared from relief camp of Dhubri and went to Bangladesh, though they went back to their native villages. A few days back 61 minority Muslims from Margerita and 79 from Barpeta were detained by some miscreants doubting them illegal Bangladeshi, later it was found through police verification that none of them were Bangladeshi. The media never see the misery of those construction laborers, rickshaw pullers, the thela pullers or the riot victims. Their pen dried to write the story of those poor families, their camera never reaches the darkness of illiteracy, malnutrition or child labor. But they can easily calculate the population growth of this community sitting in a air conditioned room and roars like a tiger “40 LACs have more than 90% minority Muslim voters!” They never bother about the problems of illiteracy, child marriage, population explosion. Almost one third of the minorities are char dwellers and their literacy rate is less than 20%. More than 40% girls of minority Muslims get married off before attaining maturity, more 50% family’s house hold size between 6 to 11 or more. Nobody is bothered about these facts, nobody is interested to take the challenge to overcome these social obstacles. The most easy way to ignore the problems is just terming them Bangladeshi and the responsibility get over! And most significantly, their knowledge never crosses the border to see the development trajectory of Bangladesh. The development index does not carry any possibility of mass migration to Assam. Bangladeshis socio-economic conditions are far better than the minority Muslims of the state. In 1981, Bangladesh’s average child per mother was 5.10 and in 2011 the number has decreased to 2.15, in 1991 average household size was 5.5 now it is 4.4, Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has been declined from 6.3 in 1975 to 2.5 and aiming for replacement rate within 2060. Thus Bangladeshis have been able to bring down their decadal population growth at 14% in 2011 from 22% in 1981 not by pushing their people to India. On the other hand percentage of Bangladeshi Hindu is declining sharply. In 1941, Hindus were 28% of total population of Bangladesh, now the figure has been declined to mere 10%. This crucial facts never get focused in the media our state.
Nobody is against the identification and deportation of illegal foreigners staying in the state after 25th March’1971 irrespective of religion through a legal mechanism. More over minority Muslims are more concerned over the issue and importantly it can’t be resolved without cooperating minority Muslims. Hence, media should stop discrimination against minority Muslims and should refrain from fear mongering for a healthy environment to put pressure on the government to find a way out. It is the high time for the biased media personals to introspect and and retrospect the socio-cultural fabric of Assam. Their propaganda will not work in Assam otherwise the recent violence would spread whole parts of the state.
The article featured in twocircles.net