Zishaan A Latif

No Place Called Home - How NRC exclusion drove a teenager to take her own life.

“Abba, I heard two people have been picked up by police,” Abdul Kalam recalled his daughter had asked him on the day she committed suicide. “Will they also pick me up?” Abdul Kalam and Halima Khatun are a married couple residing in Kharupetia town in Assam's Darrang district. Their 17-year-old daughter, Noor Nehra Begum, took her own life after she was excluded from the first two drafts of the National Register of Citizens. In end July 2019, I travelled through four districts in Assam, documenting the devastation left behind by the floods that swept parts of the state earlier that month, and the plight of the people struggling for inclusion in the NRC.

No Place Called Home - Assam’s D-Voters in Despair.

Since early 2019, a couple from Assam’s Darrang district—a 61-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman—who are marked “D-voters,” have been living on the move, away from their home, in fear that the police will arrest them. Assam’s D-voters—or doubtful voters—have to undergo an arduous process to prove their Indian citizenship before the state’s Foreigners Tribunals. At the tribunals, the odds are stacked against these individuals—a slight variation in spellings or age can lead to a declaration that they are foreigners. This is compounded by a lack of effective legal assistance and reported pressure on tribunal members to declare individuals foreigners. The 61-year-old said that they had paid a lawyer who did not help them, and that the police had asked them for money that they could not afford. “I didn’t give them any money and went into hiding,” the man said. “The police still come looking for us.” In end July 2019, I travelled through four districts in Assam, documenting the devastation left behind by the floods that swept parts of the state earlier that month, and the plight of the people struggling for inclusion in the NRC.

No Place Called Home - Grappling with floods in the times of NRC.

In July 2019, floods hit Assam’s Chunbari village. “Our land is being eroded, cows and calves are dying, but there is no relief,” Azid Mandal, a 56-year-old man, who has resided in the village for 40 years, said. Mandal and eight of his family members were excluded from the first two drafts of the National Register of Citizens, a list of Assam’s Indian citizens. The floods swept away their home as well as some documents which proved their Indian citizenship. According to official estimates, the floods destroyed 4,908 houses in Assam. “I do not even have land to build a new house. When I had land, I made a living. Now, it is no longer possible,” Mandal said. In end July 2019, I travelled through four districts in Assam, documenting the devastation left behind by the floods that swept parts of the state earlier that month, and the plight of the people struggling for inclusion in the NRC.