‘Sent our families home, taking the next train out’: Fear grips Bengali-speaking migrants in Noida amid police checks in Delhi-NCR

“I’m an Indian,” he replies defensively.

Pressed further about which part of India he’s from, he finally concedes, “Yes… I’m from Kolkata.”

Binoy’s hesitance is not unfounded. In the aftermath of recent verification drives to identify illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants in Delhi and Gurgaon, where Bengali-speaking individuals were detained, questioned, and allegedly asked to prove their citizenship, a creeping fear has taken root in Noida’s migrant settlements too.

Homes of Bengali migrants living in the slums of Sarfabad, Noida, lie locked (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)

In May, the Union Home Ministry had issued a letter directing states to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deport “in sufficient numbers” Bangladeshis and Rohingya found staying in India illegally.

While these drives started in Delhi last December following directions from the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat, they began a month ago in Gurgaon — the ripple effects of which are now being felt across the NCR. For working-class probashis, many of whom have lived and worked in Noida for years, staying in the city has begun to feel risky.

At a cluster of jhuggis near Sarfabad’s link road, where Bengali and Bihari migrants coexist, the churn is visible. Many homes lie locked. Residents say entire families have left, while others are in the process of leaving. Bags are being packed, bedding rolled, utensils sold off — all in haste.

Runa, 29, who lives with her five-year-old son, is among those preparing to leave. “We have sent our bags home. I am packing whatever is left. We’ve booked our train tickets for tomorrow night. Many people left the jhuggi this morning too,” she says.

Runa, who works as a house-help, says the panic back home has pushed her to take this step. “… My mother has been sick for the past year. After looking at the Gurgaon news and meeting the Gurgaon migrants who have moved back to our village, she is extremely concerned that we too will be scrutinised if this starts happening in Noida,” she adds.

She asserts that they are not Bangladeshi. “We are just Bengali-speaking people. And the Bengali that we speak and the one that Bangladeshis speak have some similarities, but the accent is still very different. But if the Uttar Pradesh administration does carry out a drive, it would be very difficult to explain.”

At another jhuggi cluster on Sarfabad’s main road, a row of six-seven shanties are locked. Solaiman Miya, who runs a shop inside the cluster, initially says the residents are at work.

But then admits: “They’ve gone back home. There’s fear among Bengalis. Multiple verification drives were carried out in Delhi, we have been receiving news since before the Assembly elections. But the fear has increased since the Jai Hind Camp issue… My son and I have stayed back, because we have debts to pay for which we must continue to earn… just to be safe, we have sent the rest of the family back.”

He is referring to the informal settlement in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, where electricity for thousands of Bengali migrants was cut off last month. This came after a civil court, in May, ordered disconnection over allegations of power theft.
However, the crackdown on unauthorised supply spiralled into a political flashpoint after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of “vendetta politics”.

Recently, multiple Bengali-speaking residents in Gurgaon, many of them daily-wage labourers and garbage pickers, were also allegedly rounded up during police verification drives. Despite producing Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, ration cards, and even voter IDs, family members had alleged their loved ones were detained and held in facilities that housed suspected illegal migrants.

On their part, the Gurgaon Police had on July 26 issued a statement that they were only rounding up “confirmed Bangladeshis” as part of their verification drive ever since four of their facilities to house suspected foreigners had shut down on July 25.

In Noida’s Sector 78, locals say many families hope to return once the situation cools. “They said they’ll come back when it feels safe again,” says Mudeena, who works as a house-help at a nearby society.

In Sector 93A, where mostly rag-pickers from Jharkhand — some of whom are Bengali-speaking reside — the fear is muted, but not absent. “A verification drive happened here two months ago. It made some people nervous, but most of us are staying. We can’t leave our work,” says Raju, who works in scrap collection.

When contacted, Noida Police PRO, Subodh Kumar, said, the police routinely check for illegal immigrants in jhuggi jhopdis. “Around two months ago, a huge verification drive was initiated by the Noida Police across different slum clusters and villages. Police teams are currently working to verify details.”