Tragedy in Bangladesh

So massive a migration, in so short a time, is unprecedented in recorded history. About three-and-a-half million people have come into India from Bangladesh during the last eight weeks. They belong to every religious persuasion—Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian. They come from every social class and age group. They are not refugees in the sense we have understood this word since partition. They are victims of war who have sought refuge from the military terror across our frontier.

Many refugees are wounded and need urgent medical attention. I saw some of them in the hospitals I visited in Tripura and West Bengal. Medical facilities in all our border states have been stretched to breaking point. Equipment for one thousand new hospital beds has been rushed to these states, including a four-hundred-bed mobile hospital, generously donated by the Government of Rajasthan. Special teams and surgeons, physicians, nurses, and public health experts have been deputed to the major camps. Special water supply schemes are being executed on the highest priority, and preventive health measures are being undertaken on a large scale.

In our sensitive border states, which are facing the brunt, the attention of the local administration has been diverted from normal and development work to problems of camp administration, civil supplies and security. But our people have put the hardships of the refugees above their own and have stood firm against the attempts of Pakistani agents-provacateurs to cause communal strife. I am sure this fine spirit will be maintained…

(Excerpted from Mrs Gandhi’s speech in Parliament on May 24, 1971)