TCN Special Series on riot relief camps in Assam – Part 1
By Munize Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Violent ethnic conflicts over decades have caused displacement of over 2 lakh people in North-East India. Such violent conflicts took place in various districts including Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon and the present Chirang districts of Assam in 1991, 1993, 1996 and 1998. These districts are inhabited by Bodos, Santhals or Adivasi community, Muslims and Bengali Hindu community. These riots caused massive displacement and several thousands of victims are still living in relief camps. TwoCircles.net presents a special series on such camps where inmates are living a miserable life in sub-human condition – Editor
Bongaigaon, Assam: According to a September 2010 report by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (http://www.internal-displacement.org), conflicts in north-east India have displaced 208,000 people:
* 47,000 people were displaced by Bodo-Muslim and Bodo-Santhal violence in 1993, 1996 and 1998 and are staying in camps in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts of Assam state (ACHR, 6 June 2009; ACHR, 19 November 2009);
* 125,000 people were displaced by Bodo-Muslim violence in 2008 staying in camps in Darrang and Udalguri districts of Assam state (ACHR, 6 August 2009; AITPN, June 2009);
* 4,000 people were displaced by violence between Khasis and Nepali-speakers in 2010 in the Assam-Meghalaya border region (Nepalnews, 21 May 2010);
* 31,703 Brus were displaced from Mizoram state to Tripura state in 1997 and 2009 (PTI, 15 August 2010);
Violent ethnic conflicts took place in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon and the present Chirang districts in 1991, 1993, 1996 and 1998. These districts are inhabited by Bodos, Santhals or Adivasi community, Muslims and Bengali Hindu community. These riots caused massive displacement and people are still lodged in several camps in these three districts.
Bordhup camp of Bongaigaon
The Bordhup camp of Bongaigaon district in Assam has become a starvation camp. Everyday about half of the inmates sleep without food. There are about 250 families in Bordhup camp consisting of 1500 members. Lack of livelihood and access to food has caused immense starvation in the camp.
A Supreme Court interim order on right to food has asked every state to consider people living in relief camps as poorest of the poor and grant Anotdaya cards to such families and ration should be made available to them at a reduced price. Moreover, Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme also emphasizes on immediate relief to victims of communal riots and adequate financial assistance for their rehabilitation. These provisions, however, have little impact on the lives of the inmates of Bordhup camp. There is no PDS system in the camp and schemes like Anganwadi or old age pension also have zero beneficiaries.
Widow of Abdul Haq who died of starvation
These families were displaced in October 7, 1993 following ethnic riots in the Bongaigaon district. Initially the villagers fled to neighbouring Bhutan and were brought back to Bongaigaon by police after a week and were sheltered at Bongaigaon College camp for a month. Then the villagers were taken back to their native villages in groups and were provided security. According to the inmates, ‘we were provided ration and security till 2000. Then one morning we found that the security is withdrawn. And ration too stopped coming. It was not possible for us to remain in the village as we were afraid of re-attacks. We looked for land around and found about 10 bighas of land in Bordhup area on lease’. This camp was not established by the government but by the inmates as the situation was not favorable for them to return to their original village in 2000. ‘We pay ten thousand rupees per year as rent’, informed the inmates of the camp. The inmates started getting ration supply for 10 days at the rate of 5 kgs rice per head but it stopped in October 2010’ said Wahab, an inmate of the camp.
Rahima Khatun who wants to burn herself as she can’t see her kids sleeping empty stomach
Rahima Khatun, a female inmate with seven kids said, ‘we are being dried up like dry fish. We have no food and we are starving with our kids.’ About 50% of the people of the camps starve everyday’, she informed. The starvation in the family has already taken away the life of one Abdul Haq on March 3, 2011. He was 60 years old and sick and there was no food for him.
On Feb 23, 2011 about 7000 people took part in a protest walk to Dispur called, ‘Dispur chalo’ and walked about 15 kms in protest until they were stopped by police at Banas Bridge near Manikpur at the end of the day. The agitation was carried out under the banner of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Chirang district Muslim Saranarthi Committee under the leadership of Abdul Wahab. Wahab lamented that there is no respect for protesting in a democratic way. “Since 1993, we organized ‘Dispur chalo’ campaign 9 times, staged dharna at Dispur 29 times, and also staged dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi two times. But nothing helped us’.
The inmates have requested the concerned authority for urgent relief to avoid more starvation death in the camp. The authorities are yet to turn up.
An inside look of the Bordhup camp