Char area people living in most inhuman conditions

ITAKHOLA, April 10 ? On a journey by boat, particularly after the onset of autumn along the Brahmaputra from any part of Assam, one can see numerous small and large chars (river islands) inhabited by religious minority people. Is there any one to think about these people? No, the political leaders use them as vote bank. The chars mostly dotted with huts and cultivation around hardly attracts anyone?s attention. The inhabitants of the chars who consist of 30 per cent of the total population of the State usually remain detached from the mainstream of the state. The people have to leave in most inhuman conditions all the year amidst perennial floods and erosion. Though the main occupation of the char people is cultivation, yet a small section have, in recent times, started to look for temporary jobs. According to official sources, the total char village are 2089 in 14 districts of the State covering 2,39,000 hectares of land. Out of these only 1,67,300 hectare land?s fit for cultivation. It may be mentioned that the worst-affected char areas from flood and erosion are Koroini, Siparia chapari, about 45 km from Itakhola, which has been reeling under the devastating impact of floods for the last few decades. In the char areas, the socio-economic condition of the people is deplorable. Poverty is evident in its worst form. A family usually consists of five to seven members including three to four minors who live under a single roof. Maximum belongings of a family do not exceed more than a thatched bamboo homestead, earthen utensils and a plot of cultivable land which is also not permanent in nature owing to massive erosion. Where an entire segment of the people reel under acute poverty and have to wage a relentless fight against the natural calamities, the children seldom find their way to schools. Though there are a number of lower primary schools in the chars with a few students, the teachers mostly remain absent. The prevailing social condition is such that parents seem unwilling to send their children to the schools. The influx of people from neighbouring countries and states to these chars has continued as mostly landless people and those who are victims of various social and political problems have settled here. They had to leave there ancestral homeland in search of food and took shelter in these river islands. The process of settlement in chars which begun nearly a hundred years back had created many a political turmoil in the State during the middle of 1980s. Though they are still living in this part of Indian territory and enjoying the status of Indian citizens, the whole community is branded as foreigners and as a result, a sense of alienation is growing among them. However, there is no denying the fact that a large number of foreigners entered the State at the behest of some political parties for their narrow political gain. But the fact is that more foreigners are now living in the urban areas than in the chars. The six-year-long Assam agitation against the aliens came to an end with an accord signed between student leaders and the Central government. But the Assam Accord could neither detect nor deport the foreigners as claimed by the leaders during agitation nor could bring any socio-economic change to the plight of the people. During floods, when the chars are submerged under river water, the people spend months together in the country-made boats and wait for the emergence of new chars nearby. The people living in the chars are called bhatia in the local dialect which denotes people who live on the lower course of river. Despite being laborious, they often fail to avail of the amenities of a modern society. The election time is the only occasion when they feel equal to the elite society. Under these compelling circumstances, whoever any person from the char areas goes for earning a livelihood to a city or town like Guwahati, Tezpur, they are often termed as Bangladeshis, the char people rued. Had there been no erosion and flood, the people would have not left the area and gone to other places in search of food and shelter they said. These poverty-striken people send their girl child to the urban areas to work as domestic help at tender ages and whatever she is paid, her parents collect from the employers. Some even send their children to the better-placed relatives to do household chore.