Halima & Gudiya, in queue at Bengal tribunals as cloud darkens over citizenship

Halima Khatun, 32

Recently, Halima emptied out her bank account of all her life savings.

A domestic help who shares a one-room accommodation with her family at Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas, Halima says she was worried that by the time the tribunals decide her case for inclusion in the electoral roll — along with that of her husband and mother-in-law — her bank account may be closed and the money lost.

Among other things that those deleted like her during the SIR may lose, Halima has heard, will be bank accounts.

She feels further defeated after the Supreme Court order directing that the EC could refer those rejected for a citizenship test. What more can she do, Halima says. “My parents and grandparents are all from Canning”, her father Akshed Khansama’s name figured in the 2002 electoral roll of the state — the most crucial condition for inclusion in the SIR — and Khansama figures in the electoral roll after this SIR too.

Halima also has multiple documents, including records showing she was born in 1994 in the Canning Purba Assembly constituency of South 24 Parganas. She says she submitted her Aadhaar card, PAN card, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) papers, her father’s legal identity documents including the proof that his name was recorded in the 2002 electoral roll of Canning, and her previous voter ID-card. Halima says she voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while her husband Abdul Mallick Sardar and mother-in-law were voters in Sandeshkhali constituency.

Yet her name was deleted in the first draft itself, with no notice or official reaching out to her, she says. After the first

rejection came, Halima adds: “I followed the Booth Level Officer’s (BLO) advice and filled out Form 6 (for new voters). I did so twice, and both times it was rejected.”

Pointing out that it takes her a full day to travel to her parents’ house in Canning for any official requirement, Halima says: “I work at people’s homes. How many times will my employers give me leave to go and complete paperwork?”

On the tribunal hearings, Halima says none of them has received any notice for a formal hearing. “I was planning to visit,” she says. “But I heard that without an official notice, no one is allowed inside the building. So we have been just waiting for months now, to see how the government plans to enroll us back.” The tribunals hearing the cases are all located in one government in Joka, outside of Kolkata.

With the new BJP government vowing action against “illegals”, and some party leaders linking the SIR exercise to this, Halima says they also live in fear of their names being excluded from welfare programmes like Annapurna Yojna (which has replaced Lakshmir Bhandar).

So, when they heard that the government may also freeze the bank accounts of anyone without a voter ID, they got their money out. Her husband works as a helper at a shop, and they have managed to save a little, she says. Their two minor children study at a government school. “We are the poorest of the poor. Even Rs 10,000-Rs 20,000… is an entire life’s savings for us,” Halima says.

Ashok Kirtania, the BJP MLA from Bongaon Uttar and Minister for Food and Supplies, says: “It is clear that those names which are under adjudication or tribunals will be able to avail government schemes. Those who have applied for the CAA can do so too… But those names which have been deleted through the SIR cannot. Illegal infiltrators should not avail our government’s schemes.”

Kirtania, who is a leader of the Matua community that is expected to be the biggest beneficiary of the CAA in Bengal, adds: “I have already told officers in my department to conduct a drive for ration cards. There are many ration cards under names of dead people or people who are not Indians.”

As they grope around in the dark, Halima says she has heard a passport may have been the answer. “But we live from day to day. Why would we ever need a passport?” she says.

So if they are declared non-citizens and sent to a detention centre now, she doesn’t know what she will do. “We don’t understand all this legality… Nor do we have the money to go to court.”

Gudiya Rajak, 35

Gudiya, who says she is originally from Bihar and moved to West Bengal after marriage to Raju Rajak, 40, also works as a domestic help, at Bishnupur in South 24 Parganas. Neither the couple nor Raju’s father Deepak, 65, figure in the electoral roll of Bishnupur after the SIR.

Gudiya’s name was also removed in the first draft, after which she says she submitted all that she was told was required: a filled Form 6, her Aadhaar card, PAN card, bank account details and residential proof. Now the case of her family is in the tribunals, says the mother of two.

A month after the tribunals were set up, Gudiya walked to the Joka building, located 15 minutes from Bishnupur constituency. But she was turned away and asked to wait for a notice from the tribunals. “I have received no updates.”

Gudiya is confident that there is no question of the family’s citizenship coming into question or them being sent to a detention centre should the tribunals uphold their deletion from the electoral roll. “I am an Indian, born in Bihar and legally residing in Bengal,” asserts the 35-year-old.

She has heard about the detention camps coming up in districts – Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has promised one per district. But, Gudiya says, “Those are meant for those who are undocumented, who have come across the border. Not for Indian citizens like me facing technical errors.”

However, she is afraid too. Last week, after the state government rolled out its Annapurna Yojna scheme for women, doubling the payout to Rs 3,000 per month from what it was under Lakshmir Bhandar, Gudiya’s apprehensions grew.

“We are poor; we need this help the most… I am not scared of being sent away, but I am terrified that we won’t get government benefits and that my children will suffer.”

Gudiya is determined to fight every step of the way. If the tribunals do not restore her name within six months, she says, she will go to court. “What option do we have?”