Little Ainuddin Didn’t Make it to NRC Draft, Will He be Deported?

Cameraperson: Tridip K Mandal
Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan
Additional Reporting: Anjana Dutta

What will happen if your name is not in the NRC?     

Tridip K Mandal, Correspondent, The Quint

7-year-old Ainuddin had no answer when I asked him this question.

I met him in Gamariguri, a village in Barpeta district of Assam. The monsoon is at its peak in the region and the Beki river is flowing next to the village in full fury. Ever since the rains started this year, the river has been washing away huge chunks of land, roads, and homes in Gamariguri.

But the Beki doesn’t scare Ainuddin, he has lived with the river since his childhood, it’s his own. Right now, the bigger fear is the fear of not making it to the NRC.

My father, mother and three brothers are in the NRC. But my name is not there.

Ainuddin

NRC or the National Register of Citizens is a mammoth administrative exercise that will identify Indians and detect the illegal migrants living in Assam. In this case, most of them being Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis.

Ainuddin’s father, Malek Ali, had submitted six names to the NRC: his own, his wife Zaiburnisa’s and four children’s, including Ainuddin. All of them, except Ainuddin, have made it to the draft NRC which was released on 30 July 2018.

I had submitted certificates for all my children but Ainuddin’s name is not there. Now I am scared, the authorities may ask where my other three children have come from. They may take away Ainuddin to a detention camp.

Malek Ali, Ainuddin’s Father

More than 40 lakh names were left out of the completed draft NRC. It doesn’t mean they have been declared foreigners yet. Just like these forty lakh people, Ainuddin still has to prove he’s an Indian. He still has to prove he is a legal citizen who’s living in Assam.

There are no official records of how many children haven’t made it to the NRC, but they are, perhaps, the worst affected. At the moment, they’re living in constant fear of being separated from their parents, and their families.

Since his family is in the draft NRC, Ainuddin may eventually make it to the final NRC but till that happens the fear of separation from his parents will keep haunting him.