Deprivation from access to basic facilities

i. Land documents, identity proofs and other basic amenities

The enclave population neither have a formal citizenship status nor any specific document showing their status as enclave inhabitants. ‘Neither do we have birth certificates, nor do we have Polio cards. We are only known as “people” (implying the deprivation from a formal citizenship).’³³ The only document related to land that some of these people might have is an age-old one that shows that the land had been owned or rented out to one of their ancestors for cultivation by the local landowners.

These land documents still act as the only continuing connection with their parent

33 ‘ , . ^।’ Interview with Md.

Anisur, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

state.³⁴ Other than this, the enclaves do not officially belong to any police station or district.

While the district that they officially belong to does not recognise them, the district within which they are located cannot recognise them since they are a foreign territory. ‘The way we can claim to belong to a district, a police station, these people cannot claim any of these. They lack an identity and are foreigners in their own lands. They cannot even access the facilities of their own states due to the border fencing. They are practically left without laws or a Constitution unlike us. BSF insists that even if they have to pass over a few yards of the neighbouring state’s land while travelling from their enclaves to their states, they require a passport. We cannot help them in any way even if we want to,’³⁵ says Nirendranath Burman, resident of a village adjoining a Bangladeshi enclave in India, while responding to questions about the condition of their enclave neighbours.

This also means that the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the enclaves are also without a certificate documenting their caste status.³⁶ Their unique territorial status has resulted in the absence of even basic facilities which the official citizens of a state enjoy like schools, hospitals, police stations, etc. ‘The only thing we can call our own is this air we breathe,’³⁷ laments Md. Iqbal Ali.

Taking help from neighbours in terms of fake identities to get admission to a school or hospital in the host state is routine for the enclave dwellers. And this service includes a certain amount of expenditure as well. ‘We have to pay about Tk. 500 each to the Bangladeshi Union member of the neighbouring village for fake birth

34 Van Schendel, 2002, p. 129.

35 Interview with Nirendranath Burman, deputy-head of Panchayat of Kalmati village, Dinhata (Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 16 March 2012).

36 Interview with Kamal Debnath, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Shibprasad Mustafi Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012).

37 Interview with Md. Iqbal Ali, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

certificates for our children, where the father’s name and the name of the village of the child’s birth are forged,’³⁸ says Hafizul.

Though electric poles run through them, the enclaves themselves are deprived of electricity. The electric poles provide electricity to the neighbours on all sides, depriving the enclaves in which they are installed. ‘If we try to hook current from the lines, we are threatened. Even if we want to buy electricity from them, they do not co-operate.’³⁹ This also means that irrigation water needs to be pumped in using diesel-engine machines in the absence of electricity. The lack of electricity implies that the enclave inhabitants have to depend on their neighbours for daily activities such as charging their mobile phones. ‘We charge our phones from the houses of our neighbours, since we cannot use the electricity that runs through our Chhits,’⁴⁰ says Kamal, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave. This has forced many of the enclave people to extend their houses into the neighbouring territories in order to acquire electricity and postal addresses in the host state.⁴¹

Some of the enclaves have arranged for their own drinking water facility with no help from either state. The kerosene oil, which their neighbours get at a subsidised rate at the ration shops, needs to be procured at a substantial rate for use as lighting purposes in their huts. With no citizenship documents, the enclave dwellers cannot access subsidised rations like their neighbours. ‘The moon, sun, rain and air are the only things we get free here. If the Indians could, they probably would have cut off our access to these as well,’⁴² complains Md. Iqbal, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India.

38 Interview with Hafizul, resident of an Indian enclave in Bangladesh (Dahala-Khagrabari Chhit of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal in Panchagarh district of Bangladesh, 5 October 2011).

39 Interview with Md. Karim Baksh, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Karala Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012);

Staff Reporter (10 June 2010) Pares her prastab. Ananda Bazar Patrika. [Online] Available from: http://www.anandabazar.com/10uttar4.htm. [Last accessed: 15 August 2013].

40 Interview with Kamal Debnath, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Shibprasad Mustafi Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012).

41 Van Schendel, 2002, p. 135.

42 Interview with Md. Iqbal Ali, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

The enclave dwellers have built roads themselves in the absence of any state initiatives to improve the communication system inside them. Temporary bridges have been built in some, using bamboo as their main resource. Almost all the inhabitants of that particular enclave contribute in the construction of the roads or bridges, either by providing bamboo or by providing labour. Senior enclave residents supervise the construction.⁴³

ii. Land issues

A lot of people from the surrounding areas have managed to grab land inside the enclaves in the absence of their original owners (who might have migrated elsewhere) or any state administration. They continue to live in their own state, in the vicinity of the enclave but enjoy the possession of the land inside the enclaves—

lands for which they do not require to pay revenue. Moreover, in the period following partition, the uncertainty over the future of the enclaves had reduced their land prices.⁴⁴ This was another reason behind some of the neighbouring people buying land inside the enclaves in the hope that they would eventually be merged with the host state.⁴⁵

Some of these landowners bring landless people from other areas (mostly victims of displacement due to natural calamities like river erosion) and settle them on their lands in the enclaves as adhiars, who then form their own little colonies and start cultivating the land as sharecroppers. The adhiar families are provided with a piece of agricultural land and a piece of land for residence by the owner of the land. The yield from these lands is divided equally between the adhiar and the landowner.

These sharecroppers are often treated as subjects of the landowner, and called proja (subject).⁴⁶ A new version of socio-economic subjectivity, thus, awaits these adhiars once they are settled inside the enclaves by the land owners—though such identities are not recognised by either of the states concerned.

Besides enjoying the yield from an unregistered and untaxed land, people having lands inside the enclaves can also use their own shallow pumps to irrigate their part of the lands, which the enclave inhabitant cannot do. The owners of these enclave

43 Rabbani, 2005-2006, p.42.

44 Van Schendel, 2002, p. 129.

45 Ibid.

46 Rabbani, 2005-2006, pp.37-38.

lands are registered under the BPL (Below Poverty Line)⁴⁷ list in their own states since they do not officially own any land in the states of which they are citizens.

They cultivate their lands inside the enclaves and reap the benefits to the full, not having to pay any revenue for the produce. ‘We cannot complain for fear of threats, nor does the Indian government do anything about this,’⁴⁸ says an enclave resident.

This does not imply that the enclave dwellers themselves are happy about their non-revenue status. One of the respondents makes it clear when he says, ‘non-revenue-paying has been a tradition of this country. Our forefathers paid tax throughout their lives.

Why shouldn’t we pay?’⁴⁹

Some of the neighbouring cultivators have come to own hundreds of acres of lands inside the enclaves over the years. ‘The Chatterjees of Dinhata own 600-700 bighas⁵⁰ of agricultural land here. They bring their own agricultural labourers from outside the enclaves to work on their land. Even when they sell the land, they do it to Indians, but never to us. We are perpetually deprived of every opportunity,’⁵¹ says a visibly infuriated Kamal Debnath, inhabitant of a Bangladeshi enclave in India.

Even if the enclave dwellers try buying land from their neighbours, they often end up being defrauded by the sellers in the absence of documents and also because most of

47 Below Poverty Line (BPL) is an economic benchmark and poverty threshold used by the government of India to indicate economic disadvantage, and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid. It is determined using various

parameters which vary from state to state and within states. The present criteria are based on a survey conducted in 2002. Internationally, an income of less than $1.25 per day per head of purchasing power parity is defined as extreme poverty. Criteria are different for rural and urban areas. In its Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002–2007) survey, BPL for rural areas was based on the degree of deprivation in respect of 13 parameters, with scores from 0-4: landholding, type of house, clothing, food security, sanitation, consumer durables, literacy status, labour force, means of livelihood, status of children, type of indebtedness, reasons for migrations, etc.

48 ‘ ! "# ! য !. , % . &! '

" . " ( - ( &! . ) . (

, ' " . "# . ' * (!. " ' !

।’ (Indians cultivate their lands here. We cannot do anything about it.

They do not own any land in India, and are so in BPL list. Here they do not have to pay any tax. So for them, it is only profit. If we complain, they threaten us.) Interview with Md.

Kamal Hussein, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Karala Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012).

49 Quoted in Rabbani, 2005-2006, p.52.

50 1 bigha=0.3306 acre

51 Interview with Kamal Debnath, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Shibprasad Mustafi Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012).

them are unable to attend the land registry process as it takes place in the nearest local administrative unit of the district under which the enclave lies, across the border. Moreover, the enclave lands have never been included in the land settlement surveys of either state since 1947, which puts these lands and their owners (both fake and real) into complete uncertainty as to the future of their possessions.⁵² ‘We cannot register our land holdings either in India or Bangladesh. So we write it down informally. It has no real validity and is susceptible to manipulation in future,’⁵³ says Bimal, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave. Nor is there any uniformity in the land registration systems of the various enclaves. The land registration documents are without any legal standing and have no validity outside the enclave.

iii. Commercial transactions

Being completely surrounded by the territories of the host state, the enclave people have to depend on their neighbours for commercial transactions, as well as for schools, hospitals, etc. They use the haats of their neighbouring locality of the host state for commercial purposes; use the currency of the host state; maintain family and friendship links with the surrounding areas, including marriage ties (which are officially cross-border marriage ties), and often participate in the religious festivals of the neighbours (Hindu enclave residents in Hindu festivals and Muslim residents in mosque congregations).⁵⁴

iv. Adverse position of some neighbouring territories

Due to the enclaves, some areas of the host state are deprived of communication systems and electricity as the enclaves pose a barrier. These areas, bounded by the enclaves, have turned into adverse territories themselves. The kind of infrastructure required to deal with such situations (for example, building a bridge around the enclave) might not always be economically viable. This leaves the people of such areas with little choice but to traverse the enclaves for communicating with other neighbouring villages of their own state—being forced into being ‘trespassers’.⁵⁵

52 Rabbani, 2005-2006, p.38.

53 Interview with Bimal Burman, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Bakhalir Chhara Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

54 Van Schendel, 2002, p. 129.

55 Rabbani, 2005-2006, p.62.

v. Schools, hospitals

It is with the fake identity of their neighbours that the children from the enclaves are admitted into neighbouring schools.⁵⁶ The issue of having to ‘pose a stranger as my husband in order to get my children admitted to school’ keeps coming up in numerous responses of the women inhabitants of the enclaves.⁵⁷ Admission to hospitals operates on a similar use of fake identities.

School education, even after such a hazardous beginning, can only continue till the primary level, after which it is not possible to continue education in a high school since issues of identity are more formalised in them. Official documents, like a voter card, ration card or birth certificates, to which the enclave inhabitants do not have access, are essential for admission into government-run high schools.⁵⁸ ‘In the higher classes, they are asked about their whereabouts,’ says Fatima Bibi in context of sending children to neighbouring schools with fake identities.⁵⁹

Some of the enclaves have informal schools, run either by one of their own residents or sometimes volunteered by a person from the neighbouring areas.⁶⁰ These schools cannot provide any food or books to its students, unlike primary schools in the neighbouring areas where the students are entitled to free meals and textbooks at the primary level. ‘We cannot even pay any remuneration to the teachers who volunteer to teach in these schools,’⁶¹ laments an enclave inhabitant. The uncertainty of educational degrees, if acquired somehow, leaves the enclave people disinterested in

56 Interview with Md. Iqbal Ali, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012); Staff Reporter (19 June 2013) Mathabhanga lagoya Bangladesher 3 chhitmahaley cholchhe charam arajakata. Ganashakti. [Online] Available from:

http://ganashakti.com/bengali/news_details.php?newsid=26339. [Last accessed: 15 August 2013].

57 Interview with Bhabani Burman, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Bakhalir Chhara Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

58 Interview with Md. Iqbal Ali, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

59 Interview with Fatema Bibi, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

60 Interview with Karim Baksh, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Karala Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012).

61 Interview with Saif Ali, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Karala Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 17 March 2012).

pursuing education. With no access to the parent state and no legal access to the employment opportunities of the host state, the enclave people are left with little choice. Using fake documents to acquire government jobs poses the risk of being apprehended on verification (a process that every government job entails).⁶²

vi. Marriage, women, sexual violence

Despite efforts and examples of cross-border marriages between the enclave people and their neighbours in the host states, the prospect of marriage is often critical and forever hazardous for them. Finding a bride from the neighbouring areas is often difficult for the male residents of enclaves since that entail a loss of citizenship for the bride. The wife as well as the children are rendered document-less because the husband/father does not possess one.⁶³ ‘Once one marries into the enclaves, she loses her ration cards and becomes document-less like the rest of the enclave population.

All her previously existing documents become invalid on entering the enclave after marriage.’⁶⁴

Women from the enclaves have another version of the crisis of marrying outside the enclaves. Fatima Bibi narrates how her daughter is being harassed by her in-laws for not being able to provide documents. ‘My daughter is unable to obtain Indian citizenship because of lack of documents. Her in-laws are demanding Rs.5000 so that they can arrange for fake documents with that money. We are poor people. Where do we get so much money?’⁶⁵ Bhabani Burman and Bimal Burman second Fatima on the plight of the women inhabitants of the enclaves who are married into neighbouring villages.⁶⁶ To ensure the acceptance of their daughters into non-enclave families, the enclave residents encourage the marriage ceremony to be held in the

62 Rabbani, 2005-2006, pp.42-43.

63 Interview with Fatema Bibi, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

64 Interview with Dalim Bibi, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Batrigach Chhit of Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 18 March 2012).

65 Interview with Fatema Bibi, resident of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Madhya Mashaldanga Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

66 Interview with Bhabani Burman and Bimal Burman, residents of a Bangladeshi enclave in India (Bakhalir Chhara Chhit of Kurigram district of Bangladesh in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, 15 March 2012).

presence of a marriage registrar (or a priest/kaji) of the choice of the groom’s house, currently in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh, her parents could never visit her in her present address in the Bangladeshi enclave of Mashaldanga. The piece of Indian land between the Bangladesh mainland and the enclave prevents them from visiting their daughter. ‘Even we cannot attend funerals of our parents for the same reason,’⁷⁰ rues Fatima. Movement across the enclaves and the neighbouring areas is all the more restricted for the women of the former, given the belief of the men ‘in their (women’s) inability to flee from pursuers.’⁷¹ The tragic trajectory of the enclave people rings loud in such responses. This crisis, however, fails to put a complete halt to cross-border marriages between enclave and non-enclave residents. Incidents of women from distant places in the host state marrying into the enclaves do occur,

67 Interview with Rebecca Khatun, resident of an Indian enclave in Bangladesh

67 Interview with Rebecca Khatun, resident of an Indian enclave in Bangladesh