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

A Janabadi Forward Bloc candidate,she was born in the Indian village of Kalmati and is,hence,an Indian citizen by birth. She moved to Poaturkuthi after marriage to Rehman Sheikh,an enclave resident.

She says it is the neglect of these enclaves as they remain out of government support systems that prompted her. “The governments are not bothered about the humanitarian crisis. I’ll be able to change things,” says Khatun.

As a ‘Chit Mahal’ resident herself — as these enclaves are called locally — Khatun has personally experienced the distress of being de facto stateless. “I have two children. During their birth,the delivery had to be done at home because the hospital in official India refused to admit us. For how many generations do we live like this?”

While there has been no official census conducted in the enclaves,an unofficial estimate by the Indo-Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Committee puts the population at around 1,13,000 in 84 of the Bangladeshi enclaves. Of them,around 11,000 have the right to vote in Indian elections by virtue of Indian origin or land ownership.

Says Assistant Secretary of the committee Diptiman Sengupta: “The enclave residents are brimming with enthusiasm. We are also getting support from sympathetic local people.”

Many see her candidature as a significant step in the fight of enclave residents for Indian citizenship. A resident of Poaturkuthi like Khatun,Mansur Ali,says: “If she wins,we will try to pressure the government into assimilating the enclaves with the mainland.”

In fact,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 such a merger. However,the Joint Boundary Working Group is yet to start the count.