By the time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina landed on a helipad at Fulbari upazila at around 10:30 am on last Wednesday (October 15) the medium seized field near the proposed girl’s high school at Kalirhaat bazaar of former Indian exclave Dahiar Charra flooded with people.
The news of PM’s arrival at Fulbari reached to the ears of people at the gathering there and they started cheering frantically. Within the next half an hour, the PM reached at the field, and the cheering became a crescendo of emotion and then turned into a silence.
People barely could talk as their voices were choked with passions and tears. Many couldn’t believe that the PM had finally arrived ending their 68 long years of waiting.
This is the first visit of a head of government or a Prime Minister of Bangladesh in a former Indian enclave like in Dashiar Chhara. It was, however, the fourth visit of Sheikh Hasina in Kurigram after 1998, 2000 and 2010.
As like always, Sheikh Hasina walked her talks. Before starting her speech, she created a history by inaugurating 643 power connections to the residents of Dashiar Chhara, For 68 years, the people there were deprived of electricity. She also distributed five solar home systems among the residents of Dashiarchhara.
Then she opened her speech by terming the people of Dahiar Charra as ‘flower’.
“Dashiar Charra is no longer an enclave. It’s a part of Fulbari upazila. I have come to Fulbari. Fulbari is now a garden of flowers and you are the flower in that garden”.
Sheikh Hasina said that she wanted to come here for long. “But I couldn’t and you know why. You didn’t have any identity then. Now you don’t have that problem. You are no longer the people of enclave; you are now the citizens of Bangladesh. You have a new beginning” she told the people at the gathering.
"It was a long awaited, winning moment for us. Now, we are part of a nation. and a map. Our forefathers have waited for this moment for so long, but couldn't see it happen in their lifetime."
The new beginning
For people like Mozaffor Hossain, it’s indeed a new beginning as the word ‘Justice’ had long been nothing but a seven letter meaningless word to him
Growing up in Dashiar Charra, hardship was something that he was borne and brought up with; like other 9000 ‘nowhere people’ residing in this 1943 acre land officially belonging to India used to face just a few months ago.
“When my father was murdered in 1998 by a group of thugs, neither India nor Bangladesh allowed me to file a case. Indian border has been closed for us for the last 10 years and I didn’t have any official documents of Bangladesh. I had to live with injustice for these years”, Hossain told this correspondent sitting at a tea stall at Dashiar Charra bazar.
Hossain said in August 1, when the long-awaited implementation of the 1974 Bangladesh-India LBA was completed, they lit 68 candles, burned 68 firecrackers and arranged for a night-long cultural program to mark the end of their 68-year wait for citizenship.
“It was a long awaited winning moment for us. “Now, we are part of a nation, and a map. Our forefathers have waited for this moment for so long, but couldn’t see it happen in their lifetime”, Hossain, who also act as the Secretary of Dashiar Charra part of Bangladesh-India enclave exchange committee told this correspondent.
“Every 111 former Indian exclave inside Bangladesh which became a part of Bangladesh after the historic Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves which became a part of India has one of such committee to conduct a coordinated movement”, Hossain informed.
Explaining about the movement Hossain said, “It was a movement for our identity. We have been deprived of basic human rights since 1947. We didn’t have any identity”.
He said that movement was started in Bangladeshi enclaves in India back in 1994. “Strangely an Indian citizen named Deepak Sengupta started that movement which was later conducted by his son Deeptiman Sengupta”, he said.
“Here in Indian exclaves inside Bangladesh, the movement also started to spread and from 2002, we had formed committee in each of the 111 exclaves”, he added.
“There was no option for us but to go for a movement. We had no birth registration here. Our sons and daughters had to enroll in schools in Bangladesh or Indian part through fake identities. It was a life without any sense of honor”, he said.
Political leaders and government officials meanwhile say more measures to help the new citizens are underway. In the gathering the PM herself said that her government has taken various steps and is implementing various projects to ensure the overall development of the enclave dwellers.
The identity crisis
Ali Jabbar, a farmer sitting at the tea stall said the land of Dashiar Charra is very fertile. “We grow a lot of crops here. We have a better agricultural yield than any other union in Kurigram. Yet no one from other union wanted to marry our daughters and sons as they didn’t have any identity”.
Jabbar said, another reason for which no one in other unions wanted to have marital relations with the people of Dashiar Charra was the lack of communication. “There was no proper road. People had to reach here by foot. Now we have a road and it is being constructed in last one week only”
It’s true. A twelve feet wide and two kilometer long semi pakka road from Gangarhaat to Dashiar Charra had been constructed just one week prior to the arrival of Prime Minister. “The people from different sections of the government have been relentlessly working here for the last couple of weeks. We have already started to get the benefits of LBA”, Jabbar said.
It’s not just roads; the first thing the new citizens of Bangladesh in the former Indian exclaves have got is power connections. The Rural Electrification Board (REB) plans to provide 2000 new connections to Dashiar Charra. Upon her arrival the Prime Minister had already inaugurated 643 new connections.
“My wife told me to buy a TV. We never had a TV in our village”, Akhter Ali, a small businessman of Dashiar Charra told this correspondent.
The measures taken to improve lifestyles
In last three months, three new community clinics have also been established in nine villages in Dashiarchara to provide healthcare services to the people. “Getting proper healthcare was the biggest challenge for people here. The clinics in both Bangladesh and India didn’t want to admit us as we didn’t have any paper. My brother’s wife died during her labor because of delay of the paperwork”, Ali said.
Political leaders and government officials meanwhile say more measures to help the new citizens are underway. The PM herself in the gathering said that her government has taken various steps and is implementing various projects for ensuring the overall development of the enclave dwellers.
Listing various measures for the enclave people, she said five temporary police centers have already been set up in the former enclaves to avoid any untoward incident, while work is underway to set up three government primary schools and community clinics at the former enclaves alongside enlisting those people under various projects and social safety nets.
She said that to improve the living standards of the people of the former enclaves, the government will implement the 'One House One Farm' project there. A new integrated Union Parishad complex, including a health centre, will be set up at Dashiar Chhara while various social safety net programmes will be extended there, she added.