She’s the reason for Bangla enclave on Bengal poll map

Twenty-nine-year-old mother of two Mayamana Khatun,a resident of Poaturkuthi,has filed her nomination papers from Dinhata,Cooch Behar district,to become the first candidate from a Bangladeshi enclave fighting Assembly elections in Bengal.

A Janabadi Forward Bloc candidate,she was born in the Indian village of Kalmati and is,hence,an Indian citizen by birth. She studied till eighth standard in the Kalmati High Madrasa before getting married to Rehman Sheikh,an enclave resident.

She says it is the neglect of these enclaves as they remain out of reach of the governmental infrastructural support systems that prompted her to take the plunge. “The governments are not bothered about the humanitarian crisis that we have been facing for such a long time. If I am elected,I’ll be able to change things,” says Khatun.

As a Chit Mahal resident herself — as these enclaves are called locally — Khatun claims to have personally experienced the distress of being de facto stateless. “I have two children,a son and a daughter. During their birth,the delivery had to be done at home because the doctors at a hospital in official India refused to admit us. They said they could not treat us because we are not Indians. For how many more generations do we have to live like this?”

Though there has been no official census conducted in the enclaves since Independence,an unofficial estimate by the Indo-Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Committee puts the population at around 1,13,000 in 84 of the Bangladeshi enclaves. Among them,around 11,000 people have the right to vote in the Indian elections by virtue of their Indian origin or land ownership. This vote bank is expected to play a crucial role as Khatun takes on Forward Bloc heavyweight Udayan Guha.

A former Congress MLA who is contesting as an Independent from Dinhata this time,Muhammed Fazle Haque,had initially objected to her candidature saying she was a resident of an enclave in Bangladesh. However,her papers were found to be valid.

Since she began campaigning,Khatun has found ample support among the residents of her enclave as well as the Bangladeshi enclaves of Karla,Mashaldanga as well as Najerhat in India.

Said Assistant Secretary of the Indo-Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Committee,Diptiman Sengupta: “The enclave residents are brimming with enthusiasm. We are also getting support from the local people who are sympathetic to the sufferings of the enclave dwellers.”

He claimed that the Party for Democratic Socialism and the People’s Democratic Conference in India are supporting Khatun. Many see her candidature as a significant step in the long fight of enclave residents for Indian citizenship. A resident of Poaturkuthi like Khatun,Mansur Ali,said: “We have been suffering for 64 years silently. We are glad one of us is standing in the election. If she wins,we will try to pressure the government into assimilating the enclaves with the mainland.”

The governments of India and Bangladesh have,in fact,initiated a process to assimilate the enclaves with the countries within which these are located. During the last visit of Home Secretary G K Pillai to Bangladesh,the two countries had decided to conduct a census in the enclaves before the merger could be initiated. However,the Joint Boundary Working Group is yet to start the count.