10,000 first-time voters, residents of India-Bangladesh enclaves suffer government apathy

At 36, Usman Goni looks lost, his sunken eyes and frail features betraying his real age. 

A resident of an Indian enclave inside Bangladesh, Goni and 921 others had bid farewell to his home land and crossed over the India-Bangladesh border to become a legal Indian citizen, two months after the historic Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) of 1974 between India and Bangladesh came to force in August 2015. The LBA facilitated a border demarcation and exchanging of enclaves between the two countries. 

Put up in a transit camp of Dinhata, one of the nine Coochbehar assembly constituencies, Goni wonders if his decision to settle in India was correct. His excitement to be an Indian citizen has dimmed substantially.

"I left my base and came hoping for a better life as an Indian citizen," said Goni, who owned a pharmacy shop there, but sold if off in a hurry at half of its price. 

"But now I'm left with limited food and no job. I'm worried, I don't know how long can I fend for my family," he said, helplessly.

Goni, along with family of four as well as 58 other families in the transit camp have similar problems. Their ration does not last for more than 12 days in a month, they don't have a job and have exhausted most of their resources they had come with. Most of them don't even know if they can go back to Bangladesh in the near future and sell off their homes and land parcels they left hurriedly behind.

Their temporary passports which brought them here have expired, and they are yet to get the new one.

As many as 111 Indian enclaves with an area of 17,158 acres inside Bangladesh became part of the Bangladesh mainland, while 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with an area of 7,110 acres inside West Bengal's Coochbehar district became official Indian territory. While just 921 people came over to India from Bangladesh, among nearly 37,369 dwellers, none from India crossed the border to go over to Bangladesh. 

As per official figures, as many as 9,821 people will vote for the first time in the West Bengal polls in Coochbehar on May 5. Locals say, unofficially the figure is nearly 30,000 to 35,000, combined with Indian relatives of the enclave residents. The votes, however, are scattered among five of the nine constituencies of Coochbehar.

As a result, this chunk of vote has become a major poll issue this election. Collectively, these votes can be a game changer, in the larger fight between the Trinamool Congress and the Left-Congress alliance. 

Talking about the upcoming state assembly elections, Goni said, "We will vote, but that's the last thing we have on our minds now. We are more concerned about about stomachs now."

Around 25 kilometers away from the Dinhata transit camp, people staying at the Moshaldanga enclave, one of the Bangladeshi enclaves in India, wait for their voter ID cards. Moshaldanga is part of the Dinhata constituency, which as per official figures, has nearly 5,605 first time enclave voters, the highest among all constituencies.

"Every candidate from political parties have visited our camp to seek our votes in the last few weeks. But we will only vote for the person who promises to meet our demands," Jaynal Abedin, 22, said.

Abedin, a resident of Moshaldanga, will be voting for mainland India for the first time, along with his father and grandfather, 103, also first time Indian voters.

"We need our land right document, that will establish our rights over our land. We also want contracts on the centre earmarked Rs1,050 crore for the development of the enclaves, and also a 10 per cent government job reservations in for the next ten years," said Abedin, adding that the winning party should also get electricity to their homes, which are only dependent on kerosene lamps post evening.

Locals say while local Trinamool candidate Udayan Guha is yet to give commit on the three fronts, left party All India forward bloc candidate Akshay Thakur has promised a written assurance already. 

Political analysts say Dinhata, Mekhliganj as well as Coochbehar north and Coochbehar south, all traditional left bastions will remain with the left, even though a tight contest will be there with the TMC.

"For instance, in Dinhata, these enclave voters know Udayan Guha well. His decision to move over to the TMC and making the same promises that he had made as a left candidate, is unlikely to go well wit people," said a poll observer.

However, four other constituencies, is likely to go with the TMC, say observers, while the last seat will be a tough war.

Guha told dna that he welcomes all the demands put out by residents, and said he will do more than if he comes to power.

"People will see my work, and not which party I'm standing for," he said.

At the Mekhliganj transit camp, which is part of Coochbehar's Mekhliganj constituency, 22-year-old Gayatri Barman looks like a forlorn figure. Barman had to leave her husband behind in Bangladesh, in the absence of a few legal papers, and come with her three- year-old daughter. 

"I don't have much money left with me. We have approached the local administrator and political leaders many times, asking them to expedite my husband's arrival here, but have only got assurances so far," said Barman, crestfallen. She said when their constituency candidate visits them to seek votes, she will demand getting her husband to India in exchange of her vote.

Three women in the Mekhliaganj transit camp had to leave their husbands behind for their names didn't reflect in the 2011 census. 

Another resident Sapna Rani Roy, who had to come over with her 13-year-old daughter, without her husband, said she sometimes goes to the India Bangladesh border to talk to him.

"We are allowed to talk for 15 minutes only. Our limited resources we got with us are getting over. If he comes over, he can at least do some petty jobs to support us," she said. 

The LBA had helped them enclave residents get an Indian identity. So far, they were dependent on fake ID proofs even for getting admission into schools or hospitals. Locals say they could not even marry Indians here in the absence of legal ID papers. 

However, eight months down the line, there has been little progress in terms of their development. Most of them, some of them being educated ones, have taken to the 100-day labour job offered under NREGA. Some of them are yet to get their wages.

Diptiman Sengupta, of an NGO Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee, that was instrumental in pressing for the rights of the enclave dwellers, admitted that these residents are suffering, especially those who have come from Bangladesh.

"They are living in poverty. There is a complete lack of planning. In the last few months, as many as 12 people have gone back to Bangladesh illegally crossing the border. It's a district administration failure," Sengupta told dna.

Sengupta is correct. Anita Burman, one of the residents of the Haldighati transit camp in the Mekhliaganj constituency says she is stuck. 

"I had a good job there, but now I'm under abject poverty," Burman, a primary teacher turned hospital staff, said.

"I used to earn up to 12,000 Taka a month but now I'm struggling for enough food. Nobody is giving me assurances if I will ever get a job here. I don't even have the money to feed my children," she said, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I had come with lots of hopes, hopes of a better job and a better life, but now I want to go back to Bangladesh," she said.