Eight-year-old Prabhati Rani hugs her grandmother and bursts into tears as the latter filled up the form to become an Indian national during a survey at Gotamari enclave in Lalmonirhat yesterday. The woman desires to go to India but the child’s family has to stay.
It was a depressing day for Prabhati Rani, an eight-year-old girl.
She was crying putting her arms around her grandmother, requesting her not to fill up the form to become an Indian national.
“Grandmother please don’t fill up the form, please don’t,” Prabhati appealed. But Minoti, the 56-year grandmother, who was also in tears, could not help filling the form Thursday afternoon.
Minoti has been living in the Indian enclave Gotamari which is located in Hatibandha upazila. Her daughter Suchitra Rani was married off to Ashis Kumar Roy whose house is in Sindurna village, about seven kilometres from Gotamari. Suchitra’s daughter Prabhati has been living with her grandmother since she was one year old.
“I was with my parents in the enclave, but I was married to a man living in the mainland ten years ago. Our daughter Prabhati is crying as my mother desires to become an Indian national,” Suchitra said.
89 inhabitants of Gotamari and Bashkata, another enclave in Patgram upazila, so far have expressed their desire to become Indian nationals to the joint survey by India and Bangladesh that started three days ago and will continue till July 16.
The Indian officials registered their names and took their photographs.
Minoti’s husband Binoy Chandra Barmon, 65, said everyone in his family except her daughter Suchitra wishes to become Indian nationals. His family includes his wife, two sons Ripon Chandra Barmon, 22, and Bipul Chandra Barmon, 28, and Bipul’s wife Priyanka Rani, 19.
Binoy said most of the official processes have already been completed.
“We want to become Indian nationals willingly as we were born in an Indian enclave, and so we are Indian by birth,” he said, adding there was no pressure on them.
Another inhabitant of the enclave Binod Chandra Barmon, 68, said five members of his family expressed desire to become Indian nationals, and they have already filled up the form.
“I have 20 bighas of land in the enclave, and I will sell them taking permission from the deputy commissioner after completion of all official formalities,” he said, adding they desire to become Indian nationals willingly.
Hatibandha UNO Mahbubur Rahman said all of these 89 inhabitants are from the Hindu community.
There are at least 217 Hindu people living in the two enclaves of Lalmonirhat and more of them may express their willingness to become Indians, said sources at the UNO office.
However, the Muslims living in the enclaves are unwilling to become Indians, they added.
There are 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh, including 59 in Lalmonirhat, 36 in Panchagarh, 12 in Kurigram and four in Nilphamari districts, and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves are in Cooch Behar district of Pashchimbanga in India. The Indian enclaves in Bangladesh comprise 17,149 acres of land while Bangladeshi enclaves in India cover 7,110 acres.
A joint census conducted in July 2011 found that 37,334 people live in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 14,215 people in Bangladeshi enclaves in India.
Source: The Daily Star
