For residents of border enclaves, an end to statelessness in sight

In pockets of India-Bangladesh frontier, 50,000 people are living in a country within another country.

Villagers at Dinbazar, currently an Indian enclave in Bangladesh, pay respect to the Bangladesh national flag earlier this month after the two countries agreed on a plan to exchange enclaves (Photo by Stephan Uttom)

International:  There are few hints of modernity in Dashiar Chhara.

There are no decent roads, no electricity, no televisions. Most people in this cluster of 20 villages in northern Bangladesh have never seen the lights of a city, or even the heights of a two-storey brick house.

Still, 35-year-old Muhammad Nur Alam and his father consider themselves luckier than those who came before them. Since the British partition of India in 1947, their elders existed precariously between two worlds but belonged to neither. They lived and died as stateless men and women.

Despite sitting on the Bangladesh side of the official border, Dashiar Chhara’s 10,000 residents have technically spent their lives living in India. They are among some 50,000 people on both sides who make their homes in these anomalous pockets, known as enclaves.

Often, the enclaves — 111 Indian ones in Bangladesh, and 51 Bangladesh enclaves in India — are tiny, just a few kilometers wide; Dashiar Chhara spans only seven square-kilometers. But the stateless families that live here have existed in virtual outposts, living in one country but surrounded by another. They have often lived without basic amenities, with no official papers nor easy access to schools or hospitals.

Now, however, residents in enclaves on both sides have reason for optimism. Earlier in June, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi signed a historic agreement that will see the two countries swap the remaining enclaves and allow their residents to choose where to live. The two countries originally agreed to the Land Boundary Agreement, or LBA, in 1974, but it was never implemented.

In Dashiar Chhara, there are hopes the new agreement will be transformational for families who have lived a generation on the margins of society.

“We are happy to see our struggle for an identity will end, finally,” said Alam, who is secretary of the local unit of the Bangladesh-India Enclaves Exchange Coordination Committee.

“Now, we are part of a nation. Our stateless life, like animals, has come to an end and now we can live like humans with dignity.”

On both sides of the border this month, enclave residents held celebrations to mark what they hope will soon be the start of their new lives as documented citizens.

In Dashiar Chhara, children paraded around villages with the Bangladeshi flag tied around their heads during a recent visit by ucanews.com. Muhammad Moniruddin, 50, a father of four, said being undocumented has meant he has lived a life of deceit.

“From beginning to end, our lives have been full of lies,” he said.

When he married his wife, who comes from Bangladesh proper, he did so with forged documents. When his daughter married, it was also with fakes. In the absence of proper citizenship papers, Moniruddin used bogus papers to have his children admitted to schools in official Bangladesh territory.

For Moniruddin, the cycle of poverty caused by his statelessness has trickled down to his children. After one of his sons, freshly graduated from school, was selected for an office job, authorities soon rescinded the employment offer when they learned he came from the enclave.

“So long we have lived a deceitful life. Now, we are happy to get freedom, and we can turn those lies into truth,” Moniruddin said. “In the past, people used to be sad. The enclave looked like a house of a dead person. Now, people are very happy and talking freely as if they have come out after spending years in prison.”

'Neither here nor there'

Across the demarcated border in India’s West Bengal state, residents of enclaves in Cooch Behar district speak of the same lifelong troubles.

Madhya Masaldanga is one of the 51 Bangladeshi enclaves that will join India as part of the exchange.

According to local legend, the enclaves were the result of a series of chess matches between 18th century kings, who wagered entire villages on their games. More recent complications over the enclaves, however, erupted in 1947, when India achieved independence and Pakistan formed. The boundaries were drawn haphazardly and the enclaves effectively became part of one country while remaining within the borders of the other. The confusion remained when East Pakistan broke away from Pakistan in 1971, becoming Bangladesh.

“In 1947, India got freedom and we lost our identity,” said Ajgar Ali, reputedly the oldest resident in the enclave. “Since then, we have been leading a life of being neither here nor there.”

Ali’s village leaves a visitor with the sense of being stuck in a time warp. Development in Madhya Masaldanga lags far behind nearby Indian villages. Not far away, a paved road and overhead electricity cables connect a neighboring Indian village with Cooch Behar’s main town. The infrastructure swerves around the enclave, a reminder of how development has bypassed this village of 3,800 people.

In Poatur Kuthi, another Bangladeshi enclave where about 470 families live, homes are a cluster of ramshackle tin-roofed houses that have never seen electricity or tap water.

Residents here speak of a life of poverty, denied basic amenities, voting rights, ration cards, jobs — and an identity.

“We are forced to lead this humiliating life of deceit for decades. We had to borrow the identity of our neighbor from the mainland to admit our children to a school in India,” said Mansur Ali Miah, 76.

Residents speak of constant harassment by the Indian Border Security Force. They risk being arrested and charged with “illegal trespassing” into India, since their homes are technically isolated pockets of Bangladesh.

“We get all our essentials from nearby Indian markets. We also sell our produce there. We just can’t avoid stepping into Indian territory,” said Moymana Khatun, another resident.

The agreement will give enclave dwellers the option to choose their nationality and to choose where to live.

The two countries have set a deadline of July 31 to formally start exchanging enclaves. On both sides, many residents who spoke with ucanews.com said they want to stay on their land after the transition, which is scheduled to be completed in November.

“We have been living here for generations,” said Khatun. “Our relatives and friends are all here. We have been living so cordially with the people from the mainland for years, so why should we leave all this and go anywhere else?”

During a recent visit to Poatur Kuthi, a group of children playfully marched along muddy pathways waving the tri-color Indian flag.

“I am happy that this humiliation will now end,” said Mansur Ali Miah, the 76-year-old. “I can die as an honorable citizen.”

Back across the border, 65-year-old Anjali Rani Sheel said she’s looking forward to becoming a citizen of Bangladesh. The Hindu woman lives in Dinbazar, an Indian enclave about eight kilometers inside Bangladesh.

“Although India is a predominantly Hindu country, I belong here. I will be happy to be a citizen of Bangladesh,” she said. “We hope the government will provide us basic amenities including schools, roads, electricity and hospitals, and also a place for worship.”

For now, local officials here say authorities are making preparations to welcome its newest citizens.

“We are discussing to offer a special quota system for education and other opportunities for the people who lived in enclaves for years,” said Muhammad Salahuddin, an officer in Bangladesh’s Panchagarh district, which will soon welcome Dinbazar into its territory. “Our aim is inclusive development for them all.”

Muhammad Nur Alam, the Dashiar Chhara resident, said such opportunities will be crucial if the soon-to-be citizens are to benefit from their new status. Most people in the enclave, he said, are illiterate. Without opportunities to improve their lives, he said, enclave dwellers will continue to lag far behind.

“Here, the land is fertile and we have survived by cultivating crops all these days,” he said. “We hope that with a new identity, we will have opportunities for business and it will lead us to prosperity. We expect the government to help fulfill our basic rights and needs as equal citizens of Bangladesh.”

This story was reported by Stephan Uttom in Kurigram and Panchagarh districts, Bangladesh, and ucanews.com reporters in Kolkata, Delhi and Cooch Behar, India.

Source: UCAN