By Tejang Chakma
The agonizing wait for a permanent solution continues for the Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh. Jubilation was writ large on the hearts of about 54,000 Chakmas including the Hajong community, as the Government of India constituted a Four Party Committee on 10 August 2010 to find a permanent solution to the long pending Chakma issue.
The Committee ignited a ray of hope for the Chakma and Hajong communities. However, the talks delayed as the Committee failed to hold even a single meeting at the end of 2011. Finally, the Committee held its first meeting at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh on 9 January 2012. The Committee arrived at a consensus that the Chakmas including the Hajongs who migrated to India between 1964 and 1969 will be accepted as Indian citizens. In this context, the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh has been asked to conduct a survey to identify those who migrated during 1964-69. The next meeting of the Committee will start once the survey report is verified and submitted. Currently, the survey is under process.
This is a major breakthrough on the fate of the Chakmas and Hajongs who remained statelessness for the last 48 years and deprived of the very basic human rights.
One of the most abstract of human rights, the right to an identity and a name, is intrinsically linked to nationality. The statelessness of the Chakmas and Hajongs means that they have no legal identity and have no voice in influencing the society in which they live. Consequently, the Chakmas and Hajongs are not only deprived of the basic rights but also the supplementary rights which are not covered by the principal human rights conventions which are available only to the citizens. Some of which include higher school education and various other economic, social and cultural rights.
The majority of the Chakmas and Hajongs are poor. With no support from the government their condition can be best described as pathetic. Before describing the present condition of the Chakmas and Hajongs I would like to emphasize on the events and developments since the arrival of the Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh. The situations of the Chakmas and Hajongs can be broadly divided into three categories according to the developments in each respective period as noted below.
1964 to 1979: A period of harmony
In the early part of 1964, about 2,902 Chakma and Hajong families comprising of about 14,888 persons migrated to India. The Government of India made all arrangements and provided all the basic facilities required during their transit. Later, the Government of India, after detailed deliberations with the native tribal chiefs of the then North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), Administration, and the then Government of Assam, settled the Chakmas and Hajongs in three districts namely, Lohit, Tirap (now Changlang) and Subansiri (now Papumpare) under a ‘definite plan’ of rehabilitation. The Government of India allotted agricultural lands and extended all helps including free rations, cash doles to the Chakmas and Hajongs to help them rebuild their shattered life.
The Chakmas and Hajongs are tribal communities and are Buddhists and Hindus respectively. So, they immediately got assimilated into the native tribal culture. By dint of sheer hard work, the Chakmas and Hajongs established a settled life. Many of the educated Chakma and Hajong youths were absorbed in services in the state government.
The Chakma and Hajong children received free education, stipends, book grants etc. Trade licenses were also issued.
1980 to 2009: A mixed period
Since 1980 misfortune struck the Chakmas and Hajongs. As the anti-foreigner agitation in neighboring Assam spread to Arunachal Pradesh, the Chakmas and Hajongs started receiving hostile and discriminatory treatment. All the facilities previously enjoyed were gradually withdrawn. The discrimination aggravated with Arunachal Pradesh becoming a State in 1987.
The Chakmas and Hajongs realised that the situation will continue in the absence of citizenship rights. In 1991, the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh (CCRCAP) was formed to demand conferring of Indian citizenship to the Chakmas and Hajongs. However, the State Government became more hostile.
In 1994, the Chakmas and Hajongs were asked to leave the state by September 1994 or face dire consequences. Fearing for their lives, a large number of Chakmas fled the state and took refuge in the neighbouring State of Assam. However, the Assam Government ordered shoot-at sight against the fleeing Chakmas.
With no option left, the CCRCAP sought the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) following the deadline and threat to lives and properties. In December 1994, the NHRC directed the State Government to take all necessary steps to protect the lives and liberty of the Chakmas and Hajongs. But, the State Government failed to honour the direction of the NHRC. Faced with this dire situation, the CCRCAP again approached the NHRC in October 1995. Hence, the NHRC approached the Supreme Court (SC) to seek appropriate relief. In January 1996, the SC gave its judgment, among others, ordered the state and central government to process the citizenship applications of those who had migrated and protect the lives and liberties of the Chakmas and Hajongs. So far, not a single Chakma and Hajong who had migrated to India have been granted citizenship.
The State Government also made every attempt to create obstacle to deny enrolment of the eligible Chakma and Hajong voters who are citizens of India by birth in the electors’ lists. Aggrieved with the non-inclusion, a writ petition was filed before the Delhi High Court. In its judgment on 28 September 2000, the Delhi High Court ordered enrollment of all eligible Chakma and Hajong voters into the electoral rolls.
This period also witnessed a historic moment. Although, the judgment of the Delhi High Court continued to be flouted, 1,497 Chakmas and Hajongs for the first time exercised their franchise in the Parliamentary and Arunachal Pradesh State Assembly Elections in 2004.
Subsequently, thousands of claim forms were submitted by the eligible Chakmas and Hajongs. However, majority of them were rejected on fictitious grounds. Yet, this is the defining moment for the Chakmas and Hajongs.
2010 to present: A ray of hope
The beginning of this period was bumpy. There were desperate attempts to show the Chakmas in bad light through media campaign.
Gradually, the situation calmed down with the formation of the High Level Committee by the government of India to find a permanent solution to the long pending Chakma-Hajong issue. The Four Party Committee, constituted on 10 August 2010, is headed by the Joint Secretary (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and comprises representatives of State government of Arunachal Pradesh, Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh and All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union.
Unfortunately, the Committee failed to hold any talks even after the more than one year. The meetings got delayed on various pretexts. For instance, the Committee was supposed to meet on 17 October 2011 in Itanagar, but failed. Finally, the Committee held its first meeting at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh on 9 January 2012. The Committee arrived at a consensus that the Chakmas and Hajongs who migrated to India between 1964 and 1969 will be accepted as Indian citizens. In this context, the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh has been asked to conduct a survey to identify those who migrated during 1964-69. The next meeting of the Committee will start once the survey report is completed. Currently, the survey is under process.
This is a major breakthrough on the fate of the Chakmas and Hajongs who remained statelessness for the last 48 years and deprived of the very basic human rights.
Present conditions of the Chakmas
No doubt the year 2012 started with a positive note for the Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh. But, there is no improvement in their overall situation. The lack of citizenship has been the primary reason for their pathetic socio-economic conditions.
Due to state government’s policy of neglect and exclusion no schemes, including Central schemes, are provided for their development. The problems being faced by the Chakmas and Hajongs are increasingly showing its ugly heads in recent times.
Lack of health facilities
The health facilities available to the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh are grossly inadequate. There is only one health centre at Diyun circle where majority of the Chakma and Hajong population resides. There are villages where there is no health centre despite substantial population.
As a result, a number of people die due to lack of medical facilities every year. Some even dies from curable diseases such as dysentery, diarrhea, viral fever, etc. In October-November 2011, at least 10 Chakma children died due to malaria at M-Pen village in Miao subdivision of Changlang district. There is no health care centre in the village. The villagers have to cover a reasonable distance by foot to reach the nearest Sub-Divisional Hospital at Miao. No effective step was taken by the local administration to control the disease and no health camp was set up. The health officials rushed to the village only after the deaths of more children in November.
In fact, representatives from the health department rarely visit Chakma inhabited areas.
In the absence of medical facilities, the Chakmas have to go to Assam for treatment. But as the majority of the Chakmas are poor they cannot afford and have to rely on traditional healers for every disease.
Lack of higher schools
Education, which is generally seen as the foundation for the development and progress of any society, remained grim in Chakma inhabited areas in the state. This was largely due to state government’s repressive policy against the Chakmas since 1980 in the wake of the anti-foreigner agitation in Assam. In 1994, schools were withdrawn in Chakma areas in Changlang, Lohit and Papumpare districts, where the Chakmas inhabit and Chakma children were denied admission in other schools outside the Chakma areas.
Subsequently, these schools were opened especially with the launch of the Sarva Shiksha Abiyan (SSA). Further, the state government can also no longer deprive the Chakma children of elementary education which has become a “fundamental right” with the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009. Yet, access especially to secondary and higher secondary education continued to be difficult for the Chakma children.
There is no denying the fact that most of the Chakma inhabited villages presently have schools. But, these schools provide education only up to elementary level. More and more Chakma students are passing out of elementary education every year and consequently pressure on secondary education is increasingly being felt due to lack of secondary schools in the Chakma inhabited areas in all the three districts of Changlang, Lohit and Papumpare.
The situation is worst in Changlang district where majority of the Chakmas live. Presently, the total population of the Chakmas, including the Hajong community, is about 46,691 in the district according to a Special Survey Report of the state government. However, there is only one secondary school for the entire Chakma and Hajong population of the district. It is difficult to get admission in secondary schools which are located in non-Chakma areas. In some areas, Chakma students are not given admission at all. For example, at least 88 Chakma students, including 27 girls, were denied admission to Class IX in two schools at Miao and Kharsang circles. Consequently, the right to education of these children is blatantly violated, resulting in their future being uncertain.
Students who have the financial capacity take admission outside the state such as Assam, Delhi, etc. But, the majority of them, who are poor, have no option but to discontinue their studies. Consequently, drop-outs rate is increasing every year. School drop-outs marry early, ends up as unskilled labourers, domestic servants and few even get involve in antisocial activities. Every year, many of these drop-outs, including the girls, are going outside the state such as Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, etc in search of petty jobs. They work in hostile conditions and remain extremely vulnerable to abuse.
Similarly, the Chakmas face problems of unemployment and excluded from other basic facilities. The Chakmas are neither covered under the public distribution system nor jobs are provided under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
This article is published by Tripura State Level Bijhu Festival Organising Committee-2012 for Bijhu Nijenhi-2012.
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