By Joydeep Sarkar
Mass evictions of people living in slums across cities, using force, allegations of harbouring ‘illegal migrants’ have acquired phenomenal pace in the past few months. Calling out certain demographics, like Muslims and those who speak in Bengali, as non-citizens and housing them in ‘holding centres’ has made the exercise acquire a menacing character. The Wire reports on people vital to building city infrastructure, living on the margins, now suddenly finding their citizenship challenged.
Kolkata: The family of Sonali Bibi, a pregnant woman from West Bengal’s Birbhum district, is gripped with anxiety as they await her return from a jail in Bangladesh. Wrongfully identified as an undocumented immigrant and pushed across the border by Indian authorities, Sonali and five others now face legal battles in both countries.
The Calcutta high court on Friday (September 26) ordered their repatriation within four weeks of its order, but with Sonali’s delivery imminent, her family fears her child may be born in a foreign land, triggering a complex citizenship crisis.
“I pray that my grandchild is born in my country,” said Bhodu Sheikh, Sonali’s father from Dhitara village. “We are anxious about new problems over citizenship.”
The trouble began in June when six migrant workers from Birbhum – Sonali, her husband Danish Sheikh and their five-year-old son, along with another migrant worker Sweety Bibi and her two minor children – were picked up by the Delhi police from the Rohini area on suspicion of being undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh.
They were subsequently taken to Assam and pushed across the border into Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, they were arrested by the Border Guard Bangladesh for illegal entry and are currently imprisoned in Chapainawabganj in the country’s north.
The families in Birbhum were left frantic. “My son-in-law and his family work as construction laborers in Delhi,” Bhodu explained. “When we couldn’t reach them, we got worried. In July, Danish called from Bangladesh and told us what had happened. We have been residents of Paikor [in Birbhum] for generations. Why should the Bangladesh government’s case be forced upon us when our own government pushed them over there?”
Sweety’s mother, Rezina Bibi, shared a similar story of distress. “My daughter worked as a domestic helper in Delhi and would send money home. When I lost contact, I approached everyone from the panchayat to the BDO [block development office], only to learn she had been branded a Bangladeshi and deported,” she said.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
