Migration cannot be stopped completely; it can only be reduced, given the various pull and push factors. People, like water, tend to find their own levels and the phenomenon of migration is a global one not restricted to our part of the subcontinent. Therefore, there needs to be a larger perspective in which strategies and policies need to be developed.
To view this as a cut and, dried security issue is to completely miss the point. People are moving not because they necessarily want to but because of diminishing options: because they have to. It is primarily to be seen as a survival strategy not a conspiracy to create an Islamic state and increase the borders of Bangladesh. Those who are used as tools, informers or otherwise, by external forces are a few—although their numbers could grow in the next years. Yet, the security dimensions of the outflow cannot be disregarded. According to the Director-General of the Border Security Force, Bangladeshi Muslims now dominate not less than five-to-ten kilometres of territory inside the West Bengal border, along Bangladesh. He told a meeting in New Delhi in October 2000 that this area was being used by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency for infilteration and subversion.14 In addition, there are disturbing accounts of how the KLO and ULFA are entering North Bengal, almost at will, extorting funds from tea gardens and other businesses and using that sensitive corridor to slip into Bhutan and Bangladesh. This, if unchecked, could easily spiral out of control and create greater conflicts in Eastern India, which would further extend the security forces, already hard-pressed and thinly spread out.
Settlement, initially, is in the char or riverine, island and bank areas which are the most impoverished/ underdeveloped of the region. The migrants then move on. Yet, these areas continue to be extremely backward and are becoming the soft underbelly of the region, with radicalism growing and alienation from Dispur increasing. If these feelings among old settlers (Indian nationals) are to be calmed, then short-term and long-term development projects under a special Char Commissioner with a team of experts from all over the region and the country should be created, with a committed group of NGOs to plan and implement ideas. A few examples are veterinary extension services, better rice and wheat seed varieties, vegetable and horticulture skills/technology, infrastructure and better designed homesteads which are ‘flood-friendly’. A Char Development Authority already exists but is underfunded and virtually non-functional. The message needs to be out that Dispur and Delhi as well as the rest of the region care for backward char communities. Precise surveys of the needs of each major char should be conducted by teams of specialists with the help of local leaders and satellite mapping.
Migration flows and refugee movements are two separate phenomena. A migrant may also be a refugee but a refugee, such as a Chakma of Bangladesh (coming into Tripura), is not necessarily a migrant. It is critical to differentiate these two outflows. The Central Government should draw up listings of both groups.
Laws, however well intentioned and drafted, as well as improved policing (better roads, vehicles, larger forces, even fences) are not going to work unless the political backing is there. One does not mean simply support from the State Cabinet or the National Council of Ministers. One means support from MLAs, gram sabhas and panchayats, for it is these groups who can identify illegal settlers.
However, there must be capacity to inflict punishment on them who connive at law-breaking.
It should be written into law through Parliament and the State Legislature that any official, at any level, or any person, (be he/she a politician, a political supporter of any party), found collaborating or assisting in the settlement of such migrants be made criminally culpable. Officers can be suspended and dismissed from service, without pension and any facilities which they would be normally entitled to; politicians (at any level) can be debarred from contesting elective office for a period of not less than ten years. This process must be conducted by a retired judge of the State High Court, and a single appeal to a two-member Appellate Court (of retired judges). The problem until now is that not a single politician has been found responsible or proceeded against for such criminality, which amounts to nothing less than selling one’s homeland.
The Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal Act must be repealed without delay or at least the process of doing so begun; if this is taken up quickly, it will show that, even in the face of non-passage, the Government of India means business.
ID-multi purpose cards must be made compulsory for all Indians resident in the North East region; intensive and extensive of election rolls should be held, first at the panchayat level under the State Election Commissioner or a Regional Commissioner under the direct supervision of the Central Commission.
Work Permits Once Identity Cards are in place, then those from Bangladesh wishing to work in the region (or for that matter other parts of the country) can be issued Work Permits. These Work Permits or Job Cards can be issued at the border district level of both countries (Kurigram/Rongpur/Comilla to name just three adjacent districts in Bangladesh which border Assam, West Bengal and Tripura; see details in appendices). Through the connectivity provided by the Internet and software programmes written by Indian engineers, the Work Permits can become a reality. Each Work Permit should have a special number so that duplication is ruled out. Connectivity will be through the district headquarters in India and Bangladesh. In the North East, the Government of India has launched an ambitious programme, networking 446 blocks by computer, and which can be a base on which such connectivity can be built. Thus, there can be an accounting of those who come and go on both sides. This is the best recognition of a labour market and of a labour flow, which is what the migration is largely all about.
The Work Permits/Job Cards cannot be individual ones to start with and must be issued to groups of not less than 15-20. There will be several parts of this Card, which will be more like a passport. One section, in visas will have the photo and signature/ thumb impression of the prospective workers. A second part will give details of where the group is heading, the name of the employers, their address and local police station. A third part will say how long the group is going to stay. The group will report to the local police station upon arrival and once every six months. An application for an extension can be transmitted through the Internet and e-mail to the local district headquarters, for checking and a request for an extension of the Work Permit could be made at the local district headquarters. The extensions can be granted for a maximum of two years. Should any of the migrant workers go missing during this period, it should be brought to the notice of the local police and the concerned authorities. Criminal proceedings can be launched against specific employers. Punishments should be punitive, in terms of fines and the possibility of simple imprisonment. These can be part of a special act enacted by Parliament (see appendices).
No worker will be entitled to such political rights such as the right to vote. But he/she can appeal against intimidation or a violation of basic human rights to the State High Court, the State Human Rights Commission, the Labour Commissioner and the Consulate of his/her country. They will not be entitled to buy immovable property or settle permanently in India.
The right to vote will rest only with Indian nationals as identified through the ID-Card process.
The names of those classified as D Voters (of Doubtful Origin) in Assam should be deleted from electoral rolls. They can be restored only if they can prove that they came before 1971. Otherwise, they should stay off the rolls and be moved to ‘holding areas’ on land acquired by the Central Government where they are kept like the East Pakistani refugees in Orissa (but without the vote), as repatriating will be expensive and next to physically impossible (Bangladesh will refuse to accept them).
Improved surveillance facilities and better river patrol craft. Those held and pushed back at the border are the only ones who are likely to be accepted by neighbouring country.
The above clause must include intensive and extensive involvement of local police forces in active patrolling and search operations at the border because they, more than any other security wing, know the routes and the middle-men who are making this movement possible. This is critical to the success of any scheme.
A National Migration Law needs to be developed and I place a tentative draft (see appendices) for public discussion, which incorporates some of the ideas outlined above.
Only those who have been registered as voters in the 1999 elections and their progeny as well as bona fide Indians who have migrated from other parts of the country (they will need to show verifiable documents of their last place of residence and the names of referees who can vouch for them) will be entitled to vote until 2026.
Better policing on the border with the involvement of local police—those who are detected as crossing illegally at the border will be the ones that can be pushed back and whom Bangladesh will accept than those who have settled on this side of the border.
Development of a reliable network of police informers who keep the government abreast of latest social, political and security events in the region and improvement of the existing network in other parts of it.
Implementation of a time-bound development programme for these areas that includes the building of good hospitals, schools and colleges, better boats and ferries, besides quick rehabilitation packages at times of natural calamity such as floods.
The revenue administration rules must be changed appropriately to include inhabited chars in the regular revenue department so that it comes under the jurisdiction of the concerned district magistrate/collector. Otherwise, the chars remain out of the ambit of governance and are touched only by half-hearted, ad hoc measures.
None of this can work in isolation. The river routes between India and Bangladesh should be opened up for transport and taxes levied in local currency on ships that use their waterways for travel and freight. Access to Chittagong Port through a railway line connecting Agartala, the capital of Tripura, would reduce transport costs and save enormous amounts of time, money and energy for people who want to sell their products in the best market for the best value.
Bangladesh and north-eastern states like Meghalaya could collaborate in industries and fruit processing and marketing. Limestone from Meghalaya is already being shipped to Bangladesh where it is made into clinkers and cement and exported, as value-added items, to South-East Asian markets in hard currency. The fruit from the rich pineapple and orange orchards of Meghalaya and Tripura, as well as passion fruit from Mizoram, can be packed in India or even exported in pulp to Bangladesh, and packaged there, and re-exported. Rubber from Tripura is another commodity with a large market.
Border trade could be encouraged so that the informal trade or smuggling becomes formal, giving communities access to more funds and better markets.
The list of positive measure is long and one has mentioned only a handful. But it must be asserted here that international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration and other UN groups should consider compensating those countries which accept settlers/migrants with funds to help them strengthen their local infrastructure and resource management, on the lines of the Global Environment Fund (GEF).
Finally, a massive programme of infrastructure building by focussing on transport through the waterways, roads and railway lines would generate huge capacity for employment and a vast range of ancillary industries. Many fresh avenues of employment would open up, with new townships springing up for the labour forces. These townships would need to provide basic services, including restaurants, dhobis, chaiwallahs and tailors to name a few. Traditional skills such as fishing and boat building would be encouraged. These endeavours would develop demands for large supplies of cement, iron, bricks, electric transmission towers, cables—the very nuts and bolts of development and progress.
The roadways, waterways and rail lines exist: it is time to revive them and develop them to our natural advantage.