Homeless in their own homeland

There are, at present, 2.5 lakh persons living in relief camps in Assam. These people say they want peace. They are not against the demand for Bodoland. If police protection is provided in their villages, they will prefer to go there and cultivate their lands, says V.P. Prabhakar

IS the Assam Government making the 2.5 lakh people living in relief camps idle and useless?

This is the impression one gets after visiting some of the camps in the Kokrajhar area of Assam where these people are provided dole by the State Government. However, the campers have nothing worthwhile to do as these camps are situated on forest land and they cannot plough it. They have left their own agriculture land in their villages. Both Bodos and Santhals (adhivasis) are living in the camps but their camps are separate. Of course, they want peace to be restored so that they can return to their villages.

There are 76 relief camps of Bodos and adhivasis with 2.58 lakh people living in them. The Deputy Commissioner of Kokrajhar, J.I. Kathar, said ten companies of the police were deployed in the camps for their safety. There are 8,306 Muslims, 61,351 Bodos, 1,85,410 adhivasis (Santhals, Mundas and Oraon), 2,410 Dalits and 581 Nepalese in these camps.

The populations of the Kokrajhar district as per the 1991 census is 8,00,659. Of this 16,480 are Muslims, 3,28,270 Bodos, 1,22,501 Rajbansis, 54,000 Santhals, 25,000 Bengalis and 25,358 Nepalese.

The Deputy Commissioner said that the government was spending Rs 16 lakh per day for the provision of ration and other supplies in these camps. This amounts to an expenditure of Rs 58.4 crore per year.

According to Kathar, many villages are totally deserted and most of the houses have been destroyed. He said that though the relief camps were located in forest lands, but out- siders had cut trees illegally. Earlier, there were many saw-mills in the area but now there was none because there were not enough trees left. He said the campers could not be given permission to cultivate forest land. Hence these campers could not do any work. These relief camps were set up in 1993 and Muslims were the first to be given shelter in them.

For the last seven to eight years a bazaar is organised at a place called Alandg on every Wednesday. Businessmen from various nearby places come here and residents of Bodo villages, specially Bodo women, purchase essential commodities from this bazaar.

The currency of Bhutan is in circulation there. Though the Chief Minister of Assam, Praful Kumar Mahanta, denied that the Bhutanese currency is in circulation in some parts of the state, the writer of this article got a note of Rs 5 in Bhutanese currency exchange for a note of Rs 5 in Indian currency. Articles can be purchased with the Bhutanese currency.

Many campers collect fuel wood from the forest and sell it. Though this is unauthorised, they still get away with it.

The Angori Bodorabha relief camp, according to its secretary, Inder Mohan Raba, was set up on September 8, 1998, when the Santhals attacked their village Mainiguri on September 6,1998, in retaliation to an earlier assault by Bodos on a village of Santhals. In this attack one child was killed and a woman was seriously injured. Mobile protection force has been provided to the camp.

Residents of five villages — Maininguri, Saimiguri, Dumriguri, Behamguri and Dumtiguri — are lodged in this camp. There are 169 families, consisting of 1,141 persons, in the camp. A primary school which is housed in huts is functioning there. Rohit Vasantmari, a teacher, said there were five teachers at the school.

Inder Mohan Raba said they had agricultural land in their villages but they had no work at the camps. He said the government provided 600 gm to an adult and 400 gm of rice to a child per day, in addition to salt. Even this, he complained, was irregular. He said the Bodos wanted peace.

Jaipur Bismpuri relief camp is inhabited by Santhals and Oraons. The Chairman, Nogen Ram, and the Secretary, Chote Rai, of the camp said that 19,062 person from 207 villages were living at the camp. They said some people were killed as a result of an attack on these villages. A permanent police protection force has been provided to this camp.

They said they tried to save some quantity of the rice which the government provided to them. They purchased other essential articles like cloth etc by selling this rice. Besides, Christian missionaries also helped them by giving clothes, blankets and medical help. A high school with 16 teachers is functioning at the camp. There are 3,000 students at this school. The government has provided 17 tubewells.

People at the camp said they wanted peace in order to progress. They were not against the demand for Bodoland. They want adhivasis to be declared Scheduled Tribes. They were against terrorism. They said if police protection was provided in these villages, they would prefer to go there and cultivate their lands.