India strips four million of citizenship

 

India has published a list which effectively strips some four million people in the north-eastern state of Assam of their citizenship.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a list of people who can prove they came to the state by 24 March 1971, when Bangladesh was created.

India says the process is to root out hordes of illegal Bangladeshi migrants.

But it has sparked fears of a witch hunt against ethnic minorities in Assam.

Fearing violence, officials say that no-one will face immediate deportation.

However, they say that a lengthy appeal process will be available to all – even if it means millions of families will live in limbo until they get a final decision on their legal status.

What next for India's four million 'stateless'?
But this did not reassure Hasitun Nissa, who spoke to the BBC's Joe Miller days before the list was published. She has never known a home outside the floodplains of Assam.

It's where the 47-year-old schoolteacher spent her childhood, where she studied, where she got married and where she had her four children.

But she said she expected to be stripped of her Indian citizenship, and feared her land rights, voting rights and freedom would be in peril.

She's not alone. Around four million Bengalis – a linguistic minority in Assam – have now fallen foul of the long, bureaucratic process.


BBC

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