For several married – and later abandoned – exclave women, it is difficult to say which country’s court, India’s or Bangladesh’s – if any – has jurisdiction to hear their complaints.
Life in the exclaves – squeezed between two sovereign states without the protection of either – has probably provided the conditions for a number of human rights violations, compounding regular offences.
Why? Because effectively barring individuals from access to due process – whether they are determined to be nationals living in marginal conditions or are determined to be foreign nationals – raises questions of international significance. Many run-of-the-mill offences also have international dimensions because some of the crimes are essentially trans-boundary offences and involve the nationals of two different states.
Tuntun Begum, 22, despite appearing to be in the first flush of youth, has twice been married and twice abandoned.
Tuntun, a resident of Kothajini exclave, was first married before she turned 18. Her husband, a Bangladeshi national, deserted her just one month after the wedding.
The girl was neither able to track him down nor take legal action against him because she did not have any legal marriage documents.
Two years later, Tuntun remarried. But her second husband also left her two months after the marriage.
Tuntun’s father Abdul Majid, 50, said he informed the local exclave citizen committee about the situation but they did not offer any solution.
“I could not take any legal action against the cheaters because we have no marriage registry papers,” he said.
Tuntun now lives with her parents and is looking for work to make herself independent.
Abandonment is not uncommon in the exclaves because the absence of marriage registries means that the parties to a marriage have no legal recourse if things do not work out.
Indeed, since there are no marriage registries there is no proof that a legal marriage was ever contracted.
Add to this the fact the exclaves have been treated as off limits by the police forces of both India and Bangladesh and that exclave residents cannot easily move a court in either jurisdiction, and a situation of extreme deprivation from the protection of the law seems inevitable.
Many exclave girls said they had been cheated in marriage because neither India nor Bangladesh registers their weddings.
Abdul Hamid, 38, a resident of her exclave, said many girls had been cheated in marriage but could do little about it because there is no marriage registry.
“Exclave residents have lived without the basic institutions of the law for 68 years. There is no recourse to the courts or to government assistance if one falls into danger,” Abdul said.
“Because neither Bangladeshi nor Indian police come to the exclaves, many criminals take shelter here,” he added.
Another girl, Surton Begum, 24, was married 10 years ago while still under age. Her husband, a Bangladeshi national, left her without notice four years ago after the birth of their second child.
Surton says she does not know why he left home and has not been able to track him down.
Although she is entitled to compensation from her husband, as an exclave resident she is effectively barred from getting legal assistance.
Surton, a Kothajini exclave resident, described her life as a single mother of two, with no source of income, as “miserable.”