Human Rights Advocacy
Can Bangladeshi migrants get a human face in India?
Migration to India from the current geographical and political entity called Bangladesh is a complex phenomenon. History shows migration from Bangladesh to West Bengal, Assam and other bordering states is nothing new and goes more than a century back. After partition, migration of Muslims from Bangladesh took a new name and it became infiltration. Migration from Bangladesh has been a constant political issue in Assam. According to many political commentators, the issue is so powerful in Assam that a General Election or State Legislative Assembly Election result may depend on this issue. Assam's 'foreigners problem' which predates partition has a different trajectory compared to the contemporary discourses in Delhi or Mumbai that primarily focus on economic and security threats arising from Muslim Bangladeshis.
In Assam Bengali/Bangladeshi migration is considered to be an economic as well as a demographic threat. Bengali Muslims cultivators were brought to Assam initially by the colonial rulers to grow more food for tea plantation labourers. Historically, the Assamese viewed these Bengali Muslims and their decedents as 'land grabbers'. In terms of demographic threat, the indigenous Assamese fear that they would have turned into a minority in their own state due to the large-scale of Bengali migration as it happened in Tripura. Therefore, they might be dominated by the Bengalis. The indigenous Assamese are not communal, it the ethnicity Bengali which is a threat. Assam's 'foreigners problem' has other socio-political dimensions and is a complex area of inquiry. In this article is about the contemporary economic migration from Bangladesh to significant Indian cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi.
Both Bangladeshi Hindus and Muslims who go all the way to Delhi and Mumbai are economic migrants who move in search of a better life. Mumbai attracts migrants from other Indian states as the commercial capital and city of opportunities in the region. Bangladeshi migrants are attracted by the same reasons, but remain undocumented in the absence of a regulatory framework for cross-border employment between these two countries.
It has been reiterated by several scholars and in the media that there is no official estimate of the total number of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants in India. The 2001 Census of India estimated three million whilst those seeking political mileage out of the issue claim up to 30 million. The Census does not give the religious affiliation of the migrants. A large number of them could be Hindus from Bangladesh who migrate to India for economic, social and political reasons since they declared themselves as 'Bangladeshis'.
Migration of Muslim Bangladeshis was a major election campaign of the Hindu nationalists in the 1990s. For the Hindu nationalists, Hindu Bangladeshis are not a threat, but Muslim Bangladeshis are. The Hindu nationalists campaign for deportation of Bangladeshi Muslims and advocate for citizenships of Hindus from Bangladesh. They claim that Muslim Bangladeshis pose a threat to India's economy, demography and national security. Post 9/11 Muslim Bangladeshis migrants were accused of being sleeper cells of jihadis by the sectarian political parties in India.
There have been harsh and arbitrary deportation measures undertaken by successive Indian governments to repatriate Muslim Bangladeshi migrants from the slums of Delhi and Mumbai since the early 1990s. After Jaipur bomb blasts in 2008, a number of West Bengali and Bangladeshi Muslim migrants in the city were arrested and put in the detention centres for deportation.
I was told by an Indian journalist that Bangladeshis provide cheapest labour in the region and do works that locals would not do. Bangladeshis in Delhi or Mumbai are known to work in the construction sector as day labourers and rickshaw pullers. Women are found working as domestic help, rag pickers and many unfortunately end up in bars and brothels. This is a classic case of undocumented migrants who are involved in dirty, dangerous and difficult work which the locals would not do. Bangladeshis also work in informal sectors such as small factories, handicrafts where their contributions are never recognised. Studies on migration and the development of poor countries show that the additional employment resulting from undocumented migration actually expands total output in the host country. Irregular migration may lower the pay of directly competing workers, but there is a net gain to the aggregate economy. Whether this is the case for India has not been studied. A thorough study is required to measure the economic contributions of Bangladeshi migrants to India's economy.
Bangladeshi migration is perhaps the most precarious issue in the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh. On the one hand, a section of media and politicians in India claim that there are 30 million 'illegal' Bangladeshi migrants in the country; whilst on the other successive Bangladesh governments deny the presence of any 'illegal' Bangladeshi migrants in India. Hence the mistrust and haphazard deportation measures like Operation Push Back and Operation Flush Out. Such deportation measures make poor migrants' lives more miserable.
Undocumented migration into India is a problem which needs to be acknowledged by Bangladesh. A Hindu nationalist leader from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) once told me, 'Bangladesh has never tried to address this issue; this creates suspicion. The idea is to send more Muslim and then create a Greater Bangladesh'. Due to the absence of discussion and denial about this issue at the bilateral level, Bangladeshi migrants in India are being politicised.
Bangladeshi migration needs to be humanised in India. An economically integrated South Asia or a work permit mechanism from joint collaboration could be a solution for economic migrants. A regulatory mechanism will give migrants some rights; it will save them from everyday fear, police harassments and exploitation. There have been discussions in the parliament of India for introducing a work permit system and a regulatory mechanism for Bangladeshi migrants since the 1990s, but nothing has been materialised yet. With the current warming and cordial bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh, one can hope that at least the negative perception of Bangladeshi migrants will change and they will get a human face in India.
The writer has completed her doctoral degree from Monash University, Australia.
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