After decades of deprivation, enclave people getting rights back through Indo-Bangla land deal implementation

They were the nowhere people -- men, women and children without a country, without a national identity.

They were the dwellers of enclaves -- pieces of land belonging to India but surrounded by Bangladeshi territory on all sides -- dotted along the India-Bangladesh border in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Panchagarh districts.

Trapped in the enclaves, locally known as Chhitmahals, for more than six decades, they had been denied of basic facilities like health, water, electricity, schooling and roads. Neither of the governments of the two countries would take responsibilities for them.

They had no voting rights and no legal support from any of the governments.

The parents had to forge documents to get their children admitted to local schools. They did not have birth, marriage or land registrations due to their identity crisis.

"We have no basic rights. We are living like animals in a cage," said Abu Bakar Siddique, 60, an inhabitant of Indian enclave, officially known as Enclave-27 but locally called "Chhoto Kanki", in Nilphamari.

However, Abu Bakar finally sees a ray of hope as the India's parliament yesterday passed the landmark  constitution amendment bill to ratify the long-pending Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh.

"We've heard that our long-cherished dreams will be fulfilled soon. We cannot explain how happy we are ... We will no more be known as stateless people ... We will have our own identities," he said.

There are 111 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh -- 12 in Kurigram district, 59 in Lalmonirhat, four               in Nilphamari and 36 in Panchagarh.

Visiting several enclaves in the four districts yesterday, The Daily Star correspondents found the enclave people were over the moon after hearing the news of passage of the LBA bill. In many of the enclaves, people brought out processions to celebrate the occasion.

With hopes for a speedy implementation of the deal, they believe they will soon be able to enjoy the basic amenities as citizens of Bangladesh.

"Now we hope to get the nationality very soon. We will be able to send our children to schools and colleges without hiding our real location and information," said Nur Hossain, 60, a resident of Garati enclave in Panchagarh.

Even educated people of the enclaves are left jobless since they do not have a national identity, he said. "Our daughters often suffer torture after marriage. But they cannot do anything as there's no marriage registration system for us."

Nur's neighbour Mariyam Begum was happy for a different reason. "Now we will get health service from the hospitals," she said after describing how they often would be denied medical services at local hospitals for not having a nationality.

Pregnant Kalpana Akhter of Dashierchhara enclave in Kurigram's Phulbari said, "I was not allowed in the hospital whenever I said that I live in an Indian enclave ... Now, I hopefully will get healthcare facilities."

Children in particular were very happy.

"I had to fake my identity to get admitted to the school. Now my father said we won't need to do so anymore," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a class-IX student of Gangarhat Girls' High School in Phulbari.

Milon Miah, a seventh grader of Gangarhat High School in Phulbari, said: "Now we can play and move around freely."

Sixty-year-old Hasan Ali of Kuchlibari enclave in Lalmonirhat described this as a "new freedom", and said: "We hope that we will enjoy the taste of our freedom."

The enclave people now demand that the Bangladesh government immediately solve their problems.

Golam Mostafa, general secretary of the Bangladesh chapter of India-Bangladesh Enclave Exchanging Coordination Committee (IBEECC), said the enclave people are in immediate need of transportation, education, health and electricity facilities.

"We hope the government would meet our demands without delay," said an exalting Mostafa.

However, not everyone was as happy as him.

"We were happy in 1974 when Bangabandhu and Indira Gandhi had signed an enclave exchange agreement, but it was not implemented," Altab Uddin, IBEECC secretary told our correspondent.

"However, we sincerely believe that we won't be disappointed this time around," said Altab, also the president of Balapara enclave         management committee in Nilphamari.

[Our district correspondents EAM Asaduzzaman, Quamrul Islam Rubaiyat, Abdul Wahed and S Dilip Roy contributed to the story.]