Interestingly, because of their association with these NGOs, many people spoke about their problems in the language of citizenship rights, using words like "adikaar" (rights) and "desh" (country). Most of the people there were either slum dwellers or pavement dwellers.

I spoke to a group of pavement-dwelling women who described their belongings being set on fire by the police ("they used to tear apart our jhopras (informal dwellings) and burn them in our own cooking fires.") The same group said that since their association with TCS, the police have largely left them alone, but their existence is still precarious. One thing I heard often is that they think the government does not want to give them formal citizenship status, in the way of identity documents... and government officials justify this by saying they are Bangladeshi. They also suffer harassment for the same reason. In fact, all the women I talked to were either Bengali or Bihari.

05.jpg