Once Stateless, Former Enclave Dwellers Now Savour Electoral Right

Former enclave dwellers settled in Bengal’s Cooch Behar have voting right but no jobs, writes Sudipta Chanda.

A boy from Poatarkuti enclave celebrates near the India-Bangladesh border in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal after the two countries exchanged enclaves on August 1, 2015. (Photo: IANS)

The glint in Mizanur Rahman’s eyes as he caresses the rectangular piece of plastic laminated card reassuring himself of his new-found identity says it all. Rahman is excited. He would use that card for the first time ever to take part in a franchise as would 9,776 others like him on May 5, the last day of the six-phase assembly polls in West Bengal. Their feeling is indescribable.

No, it is not because they have come of voting age, but have earned something priceless -- nationality. They are the former enclave dwellers along the Bangladesh border in Cooch Behar district. Nowhere-people till five months ago, they would now partake in an exercise to elect a government. It is a first for them and the thrill is showing.

Election Commission officials demonstrating the handling of an EVM to the enclave dwellers who recently got Indian citizenship, in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, April 26, 2016. (Photo: PTI)

New Role as Voters

On July 31, 2015, 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with their 14,854 residents assimilated with India on an as-is-where-is-basis while 111 Indian enclaves with 41,449 residents went to Bangladesh through an exchange exercise between the governments of India and Bangladesh.

Those willing to migrate to the Indian mainland from the 111 Indian enclaves were allowed to do so till November 31, 2015. By official count, 922 people did and are currently housed in three settlement camps at Dinhata, Mekhliganj and Haldibari, all in Cooch Behar district.

Collectively the former enclave dwellers make up a bank of 9,776 voters, a trifle in terms of numbers. But the significance lies elsewhere. Having spent half their lives ignored as stateless people, they suddenly find themselves in an altogether alien role -- part of India’s massive electorate. The heady feeling of finally becoming part of a state is giving them wobbly knees besides a sense of importance. After all, they would elect a government for the first time.

Disillusioned with their Present State

The generosity of policy-makers in awarding them a nation is not lost on the beneficiaries and so there is a sense of gratitude, but the feelings of disappointment are equally strong. More than the elections or the outcome thereafter, it is the daily grind of life that therefore keeps them occupied.

Five months have passed since we became Indian citizens, but our lives are confined within the government organised settlements. To start with, we got job cards but there is no job. After the initial support we now get rationed foodgrains and fuel but have to arrange the rest for our daily needs. How do we do it?

Mizanur Rahman, a resident of the former Indian enclave Dashiarchhara.

His complaint gains currency with Diptiman Sengupta, chief co-ordinator, Citizens’ Rights Co-ordination Committee (CRCC). “They are Indian nationals now, but their lives have grown directionless since the migration. Bread earners of their families before the migration, they are now simply vegetating. Assurances made prior to the rehabilitation have not been kept,” alleges Sengupta.

Polling officials checking EVMs and related documents required for the West Bengal assembly elections, at a distribution centre, in Cooch Behar, May 4, 2016. (Photo: PTI)

India’s Newest Voters

• A total of 9,776 people residing in enclaves would exercise their franchise for the first time in the sixth phase of assembly polls.
  
• After India and Bangladesh signed the Land Boundary Agreement last year, Bangladesh had transferred 51 enclaves to India.
  
• First-time voters of enclaves dissatisfied with the administration as they struggle for food and jobs.
  

Hope is their Last Resort

According to the CRCC office bearer, 12 of those who had made the exodus till November 31, 2015, returned to Bangladesh after facing uncertainty in the settlement camps. Mizanur too acknowledges the fact but is not sure of the number of people who have returned.

“Since all of us belong to the agrarian community and had arable land in Bangladesh, the Indian government should urge the Bangladesh government to pay us due amount for the landed property we left behind in that country. That would see us through all our problems,” is Mizanur’s solution.

Politics and international relations, however, meander in their own circuitous route, beyond the grasp of Mizanur or his ilk.

“I have tried to draw the Centre and the state government’s attention to the problems without much success. I presume there is a communication gap at the ground level. I hope things would eventually shape up for the benefit of all,” says optimistic Cooch Behar MP Renuka Sinha.

The dust has settled on the election campaign trail, the excitement over the enclaves exchange has grown cold and the former enclave dwellers have graduated into refugees. Hope centring the elections is all the once nowhere people now have left to cling to.

(The writer is a Siliguri-based journalist)

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