Hunger and riches in "incredible India"

A national daily presented the other day two contrasting pictures of India. On its front page were the findings of a research indicating the extent of hunger and malnourishment in the country and in one of the inside pages was a report on the explosion on its roads with millions of private vehicles causing traffic jams in its urban centres. One wonders whether these contrasting pictures in a single edition of a daily have caught the attention of those who frame and implement the country’s economic policies. They show, if anything, the growing economic inequality in the country, which can directly be attributed to the policies pursued since economic liberalisation. The government has taken some initiatives to deal with the pervasive hunger and malnutrition but the measures that have been taken seem to have failed to yield the desired results.

The daily cited the data collected by researchers of Global Hunger Index (GHI), a multi-dimensional statistical tool that was adopted and further developed by International Food Policy Research Institute, that reveal India has 213 million hungry and malnourished people. At the same time, it reported that the Food & Agricultural Organisation, a specialised agency of the United Nations, puts the figure at 230 million using, as it does, standard calorie intake formula for measuring adequacy of food. Since the GHI’s hunger index is based on a broader formula, its figures are marginally lower. The shameful inescapable fact, however, is that more than one-fifth of the country’s population suffers from hunger. Worse, the country hosts the largest number of hungry people in the world – about a quarter of world’s 820 million. The dismal statistics reveal that 21% of population is undernourished, nearly 45% of under-5 children underweight and 7% of them dying before they reach the age of 5. India is thus one of the most hunger-ridden countries – worse than even Sudan, North Korea, Nepal and Pakistan and better than only the Sub-Saharan countries of Congo, Chad, Burundi.

The report also cites the findings of the National Family and Health Survey carried out in 2004-05 according to which 23% of married men, 52% of married women and 72% of infants were anemic. The daily further reports that “global research has now firmly established that depriving the foetus of essential nutrients – as will happen in an under-nourished pregnant woman – seals the fate of the baby once it is born” making him susceptible to diseases, physical and mental retardation. So continuing to allow people to go hungry and malnourished is not just misery for them but also putting at stake the country’s future generations. It’s, therefore, time the government sat up, took notice and shook off its lassitude.

The other picture presents a vastly different view – that of the other side of the country’s economic spectrum. It displays the progressively increasing number of cars on the roads of urban India that result in almost daily traffic jams in not only metros but also in tier-II and tier-III towns. With a car density of only 15 per thousand (in 2006) things on the urban roads are bad enough. One wonders what will be the shape of things if this density becomes 100 per thousand. Delhi is reported to have already reached that density and its citizens are paying for it by way of huge, long drawn-out traffic snarls on a regular basis. Despite the rising inconveniences of the commuting public car makers are bullish about the Indian car market. Its phenomenal growth shows hardly any signs of abating.

Acquisition of a car today depends not so much on necessity as on the rising aspiration of the India’s middle classes, so much so that everybody from a petty trader to an office personal assistant acquires a four-wheeler. Perhaps, of greater interest is that of late the country’s biggest car manufacturer, Suzuki, has discontinued manufacture of the basic entry model with which it launched its operations in India. It now puts out models that are more sophisticated to cater to a discerning market that has since become a place of ruthless competition. It is now a far cry from the pre-liberalisation days when only three manufacturers monopolised the market and the number of vehicles produced was in mere thousands. Today about two dozen manufacturers are jostling to grab a piece of the ever-enlarging cake. During the last financial year as many as 2.5 million cars were sold in the country. The market is so lively that even the European and British luxury brands have set up shop here.

This apart the growing affluence of the middle classes is reflected by massive spreads in the newspapers of ads for high-end housing. Even prestigious foreign journals, such as The Economist and Time are used to entice NRIs and PIOs to buy what is on offer in India in the shape of luxuriously appointed houses and apartments (some even with private gardens) in gated complexes. In fact, gated complexes are proliferating all over the country around urban centres on farm lands and are snapped up by businessmen, industrialists, politicians, foreign returnees and the corrupt chasing, as they are, the Indian version of their “American Dream”.

The remarkable co-existence of abject poverty and growing affluence of the middle and upper classes made Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, wonder about India’s future. Finding no clear roadmap for “where India is going today” he asked, “Does it see itself evolving like the US where even the middle class has not been sharing gains of the growth? Where the rich live in gated communities waited upon by the vast majority of the poor who earn in a lifetime but a fraction of what they receive in an hour?”

Various measures taken by the government for poverty alleviation, some of them in mission mode, have not yielded the results that were expected. This is amply testified by the statistics, particularly in the areas of poverty, nutrition and education. The reasons could be pervasive corruption and/or lack of governance. It is felt, while the rural missions could continue with better inspection and monitoring, the government could, perhaps try, in addition, the world’s favourite new anti-poverty device, the conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTP). Under these programmes governments give stipend and food to the poorest if they meet certain conditions, like sending children to schools or vaccinating the babies. These programmes have spread far and wide as they cut poverty, improve income distribution and help the next generation. Rules-based and generally uncorrupt, CCTP has benefited a number of countries in Latin America and Africa as it is good at providing what rural people lack: food, water, primary schools and simple health care. And, yet the key element for its success, as in several other missions, would be good governance.

bagchiblog: Killing a Ramsar Site

bagchiblog: Killing a Ramsar Site

Killing a Ramsar Site

One can be reasonably sure that on the 2nd of February next the ministers concerned of Madhya Pradesh government will mouth some platitudes about conservation of the Upper Lake and its adjunct the Lower Lake which together constitute Bhoj Wetland. In practice however, the local officialdom is more concerned about its “development” and by that they mean providing means for attracting more and more visitors to its shores or to its close proximity. Conservation is a word which does not seem to figure in their lexicon in so far as this fantastic natural asset of Bhopal is concerned, particularly when it is a Ramsar Site – a wetland of international importance, the only one in the state.

For the uninitiated, on 2nd February 1971 a convention was adopted by participating countries at Ramsar, an Iranian city, for “Conservation of wetlands of international importance, especially as waterfowl habitat” in recognition of their fundamental ecological functions and their economic, scientific, cultural and recreational value, the treaty eventually coming into force on December 21, 1975. The objectives set before the contracting parties were conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands, i.e. to stem the progressive encroachment on them and prevent their loss “now and in future”. Ramsar Day or World Wetland Day is celebrated every year on 2nd February to highlight the ecological importance of wetlands to the human community. India is among the 156 contracting parties.

Bhoj Wetland was designated as a Ramsar Site in November 2002, one of the main reasons being that it was an Important Bird Area (IBA), identified by Birdlife International and habitat for varied species of waterfowl. With its ecosystem stabilized over the last millennium of its existence, the Upper Lake presently represents all the features of a near-natural wetland. Its diverse flora provides sustenance to a large population of avifauna so much so that until recently many thousands of water-birds – domestic and migratory – could generally be observed annually.

Unfortunately, the Wetland is progressively losing this very attribute – the one that helped it in its recognition as a Ramsar Site. Of late, reports have appeared in the local press that birds seem to be avoiding this Wetland for roosting and are overflying to more congenial nearby water bodies. Local bird-watchers have noticed that among the hitherto regular migratory visitors black-necked storks, white storks, tufted pochards, common teals, mallards, bar-headed geese, etc. did not visit the wetland this year at all. Mohammed Khalique, a well-known local bird-watcher reported that he happened to find only one bar-headed goose that somehow lost its way into the wetland when in 2006 the species was seen in hundreds. Another bird-researcher, Sangita Rajgir, reported steep fall in the numbers of several migratory species that could be seen in thousands even five years ago.

Unsurprisingly, increasing human interference is being blamed for the loss of birdlife of this Wetland. Contamination of the waters due to yearly immersion of thousands of effigies of gods and goddesses painted with toxic paints after the Ganesh and Durga festivals as also chemical-based farming in the catchments and progressively intensifying tourism activities like plying of motorised boats and frequent assembly of people in large numbers in and around the Upper Lake have all contributed to make the Wetland inhospitable for water-birds. The addition of the tourism complex Sair Sapata, not even a kilometre away from the bird area, has become a big factor for the flight of birds from this IBA. Anticipating its likely impact, the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum had organised a photographic exhibition in December 2008 of photographs of birds of Bhoj Wetland taken by one of its member, reputed photographer AC Chandra. The intention was to sensitise the administration to the need to protect this IBA. All that, however, was to no avail as none in the government had eyes and ears for it. Even the Sports Authority of India complex that was built close to the bird area for year-round sporting activities has played no mean role in causing disturbance to the resident birds.

If today this Ramsar Site has ceased to be a bird area of significance the local government has to be held squarely responsible for the policies it adopted for its acute exploitation for generating tourism revenues. The most active in this regard were its Department of Urban Administration & Development and the State Tourism Development Corporation. Their collective acts of omissions and commissions have led to this unfortunate situation, putting under threat the Wetland’s Ramsar Status. Any talk of conserving this wetland on Ramsar Day by any of their representatives would, therefore, be pure and simple hypocrisy.

Row over Dow

The row over Dow chemical sponsorship of the London Olympics 2012 has, of late, assumed larger proportions. While the Indian government asked the Indian Olympic Association to lodge a protest with the London Organising Committee for Olympic Games (LOCOG) 2012 for allowing Dow Chemical as a sponsor, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/ Dioxin (VAVA) has also asked LOCOG on behalf of 300,000 members of VAVA and three million victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam which to drop Dow Chemical as a sponsor.

The Indian Government’s protest was based on the linkage of Dow Chemical to the Union Carbide Corporation from the erstwhile Bhopal factory of which a lethal gas escaped in December 1984 killing and maiming many thousands. The VAVA, however, has protested for the reason that Dow was one of the companies which supplied toxic chemicals – collectively called Agent Orange – for use by the US military in the Vietnam War (1961-1971) devastating the country’s ecology and environment, leaving millions dead and suffering.

The Dow Chemical Company (TDCC) signed an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2010 under which the former was declared the official World-Wide Partner for Olympics and for the Olympic Movement upto 2020. According to the agreement, Dow is also supposed to partner the National Olympic Committees across the globe. For the 2012 Games Dow is footing the bill for a temporary decorative wrap over London's Olympic Stadium. It, however, removed its logo from the wrap after widespread protests and demonstrations against its association with the Games.

The company's sponsorship deal has led to outrage among victims of the Bhopal tragedy. Rashida Bi of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh said that her organisation had requested the Prime Minister and the IOC Chairman three months ago to register the country's opposition in the matter but her request went unheeded. "It is unfortunate that lawmakers in England are protesting against Dow's sponsorship of 2012 London Olympics but no step is being taken by the Centre or the IOC," said Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action. Some of the former Indian Olympians branded the Dow sponsorship as “offensive to the spirit of the Olympic Games” in a press conference held jointly by organisations fighting for relief of Bhopal gas disaster survivors. Even the Ministry of External Affairs in a letter to the Prime Minister's Office said that the company's sponsorship was a very sensitive issue and that there was strong public opinion against it.

TDCC is in the eye of the storm as the offending factory of Bhopal was owned by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) which is now its wholly-owned subsidiary. The process of acquisition commenced in 1999 and TDCC acquired UCC as a sequel to a transaction that closed in 2001 for $11.6 billion. Sebastian Coe, Chairman of LOCOG, has, therefore, defended the association of Dow with the 2012 Games. According to him, its links with the company that was responsible for the gas leak in Bhopal came long after the 1984 tragedy. He further said, “Dow were never the operators or the owners of that chemical plant in 1984, nor were they the operators or the owners of the plant in 1989 when the final settlement was agreed... Dow became the major shareholders in that company only in 2001, some 17 years after the tragedy. And the final settlement was upheld on two separate occasions by the Indian Supreme Court.”

From all appearances, Sebastian Coe is right. Clearly, Dow became the owner of the UCC in 2001 when the latter had no liabilities relating to the Gas Tragedy of 1984 – all its obligations having been discharged. One buys assets and not liabilities; had the liabilities persisted Dow might have refrained from acquiring UCC. Thus, legally speaking, Dow wouldn’t seem to be involved anyway with the Gas Tragedy. Its ethical liability also would seem to be extremely tenuous. Many, obviously, are accusing it of spending billions on supporting the Olympic Movement during the next decade yet turning a blind eye to the plight of the victims of apathy and neglect of its subsidiary’s. But, legally that would cut no ice and, hence the song and dance about removal of Dow as a sponsor appears misplaced.

So, one does not quite understand why the company is being targeted. The facts being what they are, it can in no way be held responsible for the plight of the gas-leak survivors. If any entity that needs to be blamed it is the Indian National Congress that was governing during the crucial period at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh in the capital of which the gas-leak occurred. From fishing out a proposal kept on the ice for five years for establishment of the chemical plant with obsolete technology in the ‘70s to allowing its erection in Bhopal and encouraging building of shanties around it for political gains; to ignoring repeated alarms raised in the local press about its shoddy maintenance; to pegging the number of deaths at only 15000 when they were many more and are now proposed to be revised to 25000; to assuring Warren Anderson, Chairman of the UCC that he wouldn’t be arrested and then smuggling him out of India after being arrested and charged with manslaughter; to finalising settlement for a mere $470 million in 1989 after having lodged a claim for $3 billion towards compensation for the dead and surviving, simultaneously extinguishing the rights of the suffering survivors to pursue their claims for compensation; to restraining the Central Bureau of Investigation from appealing against the ruling of the Supreme Court given in 1996 that reduced the charges against management of the UCC factory as only acts of criminal negligence; to stopping remediation of the factory site by UCCs successor company and taking it back against the prevailing law exposing surviving shanty-dwellers to consequential environmental hazards it was the Congress that was responsible ruling, as it did, right through these years both at the Centre and in the state.

Even the current Congress-led government at the Centre decided against becoming a party in the ongoing compensation case of the gas victims in US courts, with the Law Minister saying “Our courts are competent and capable of resolving (the matter)”, as if he didn’t know that orders of Indian courts wouldn’t be enforceable in the US. Besides, the same government allowed the Bhopal Memorial Hospital, a top-class facility created for the benefit of gas-leak survivors, to go to seed with many of its departments virtually shut down having been starved of men and equipment. Congress’s has been a long saga of serving the cause of the UCC and apathy towards its victims.

Objectively speaking, VAVA’s protests are more justifiable as Dow played a direct contributory role by manufacturing and supplying to the US Army weapons of mass destruction aerial bombing of which led to mass scale deaths and destruction during the decade-long Viet Nam War. In case of “Bhopal”, however, it is our own politicians who did the victims in. Hence, why blame Dow?

Minister and the Bhopal Lake

After his visits about two years ago to Hyderabad and Srinagar, Babu Lal Gaur, Minister for Urban Development & Administration (UAD) kept harping that the city’s Upper Lake would be developed on the lines of Hussain Sagar Lake and Dal Lake, respectively. The peripatetic UAD Minister seems to have a penchant for implanting on the local Lake whatever he happens to see elsewhere. It seems his obsession with the Hyderabad and Srinagar lakes has since petered out. Now that he and his daughter in-law, the Bhopal Mayor, have visited Chilika Lake in Odisha, reports have come in that the Minister will now strive to develop the Upper Lake like Chilika. That it is the second largest lagoon in the world with a far greater spread and the waters of which, unlike those of the Upper Lake, are brackish (that host the endangered Irrawadi dolphins) do not quite matter to him.

One must, however, give it to him that wherever he might be Bhopal remains in his consciousness. At times, however, it makes him commit excesses. He seems to want to do too many things at the same time. While, for instance, recommendations of international consultants invited earlier for comprehensive development of the water body and its catchments are reportedly still under consideration, the UAD minister not only had a rather ugly statue of the legendary Raja Bhoj installed on what must have been an old watch-tower projecting into the Lake, he went and had a model of an Indian Navy ship planted near the Boat Club. He was recently reported to be in negotiations with the Railways to locate an old steam locomotive too on the banks of the Lake. All this apart, he wants also to erect a museum close to the Lake depicting history of its development through a millennium, notwithstanding the fact that an Interpretation Centre about the Bhoj Wetland Project already exists next to the Boat Club. Perhaps, the Minister is not quite clear about how he would like to “develop” the Upper Lake, which under his stewardship may witness some remarkable hodgepodge around it. One can, however, see through his designs which aim at nothing except attracting hordes of tourists to the Lake.

That collection of large number of people is not conducive to proper conservation of a vital wetland like the Upper Lake does not quite occur to him. Numerous foreign and domestic experts on conservation of wetlands invited by the now-nonexistent Lakes Conservation Authority in seminars and workshops had suggested umpteen number of times prevention of collection of unduly large numbers of people around the Lake for reasons of preservation of its ecological health. But the Minister, in collaboration with the local Tourism Corporation, is hell-bent in doing just the opposite.

Though the minister’s penchant for “development” of the Lake is admirable yet one would have liked him to talk the language of its conservation instead of development. One craves to hear from him of maintenance of its catchments in conducive conditions with farms taking to organic farming precluding the flow of chemicals into the Lake; likewise one craves to hear from him of removal of encroachments from the Lake-shores that are progressively reducing its spread; one also craves for his directions for saving its bird area (bird-life being essential for a wetland’s health) that is now losing its avian guests because of disturbances to their habitat (by Sair Sapata tourism complex, for one); and how one craves to see orders issued forth from him to plug the sewers emptying into the Lake to restore to its waters their pristine purity.

Sadly, these will remain just cravings never to be fulfilled as sustainability of the Lake – not concrete and tangible – never quite appeals to the Minister who, being a politician, finds a melange or mishmash is something he could boast about and which would fetch him precious votes.

Bhopal - mitigating parking woes

The local edition of Times of India recently came out with a series of features on parking problems in Bhopal. It covered several localities, mostly, what they called “congested”. Among them were No 10, MP Nagar Malviya Nagar and, of course, New Market. Curiously, there was no mention of the areas like Peer Gate, Moti Masjid, Budhwara and such areas of Old Bhopal that continue to remain deprived of attention of the authorities in this regard.

However, the newspaper missed a very important point relating to provision of parking facilities in these areas. It never seems to have appeared to it, and that is where the authorities are going to find land for the burgeoning number of 2 and 4 wheelers in the town. In the last ten years there has been a very strong surge in their numbers and thousands are being added every month regardless of rising fuel costs, congestion on the roads, unruly traffic and rising volumes of noxious, polluting and earth-warming gases in the city’s air. Jungles of two-wheelers are ubiquitous in the town, especially in centres of trade and business. Clearly, the parking problem is progressively becoming so formidable that the Municipal Corporation will be hard put to cope with the demand for parking places – whether spread over empty and vacant lands or in multi-storeyed parking lots.

What, therefore, are needed are measures to curb the rise in number of vehicles. True, acquiring a vehicle is basically aspiration-driven. Everyone aspires to own a vehicle and none could really hold it against them. But what one witnesses today is possession of multiple vehicles by families – a couple of four-wheelers (if not more) or one or more 4-wheelers in combination with one or more two wheelers. Many families, especially in the Chowk area, have as many as half a dozen two wheelers. With growing prosperity among the middle classes owning multiple vehicles has become commonplace. This indulgence is witnessed regardless of availability or otherwise of space in the house to accommodate all the vehicles. No wonder, in most of the residential areas one finds today cars parked for most part of the day and at night out on the narrow colony roads. Among many families of traders even the housewife has a four-wheeler for her exclusive use which is seldom used. This confirms the contention of Sunita Narain, the editor of the prestigious environmental magazine “Down to Earth”. According to her a vehicle sits on its four wheels for 90% of the time either at home or in a parking lot.

While raising the cost of petrol/diesel, hiking taxes on vehicles and making the parking fees prohibitive have been the common measures recommended for limiting the rise in the number of vehicles, a measure that has received attention lately is ensuring that the purchaser of a vehicle has space at home to park his vehicle. The purchaser of a new four wheeler will have to prove it to the vehicle registering authority that he has enough space at his place to park his vehicle. Difficult of enforcement, such a provision if enforced is likely to be expensive as the government will have to provide for manpower for verifications of claims by the purchaser. Many, therefore, consider it as impracticable.

What, however, is urgently required is to reduce the number of vehicles plying on the roads, particularly at peak traffic hours. For that many towns have adopted various measures. Some have ordered plying of vehicles of even numbers on some days and those with odd numbers on others. Others have adopted a far harsher method of imposing what is known as “Congestion tax”. A fee of 5 Pounds was levied on every vehicle that entered the highly congested Central London as congestion tax a few years ago. The fee may have been hiked by now. I recall as far back as in 1981 a car, even a taxi, could not enter the High Street of Singapore unless it had four occupants, including the driver. Each town and country puts together regulations according to its needs and keeping in view its capability of enforcing them.

We in Bhopal, however, suffer from a seemingly incurable malady of non-governance. This is more pronounced in so far as managing traffic on the roads is concerned. Traffic Police seem to have thrown in the towel. It is not that they are incapable. They, in fact, suffer from lack of manpower and, of course, interference from our revered “netas”. When the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum requested some of our ministers and MLAs that, given the uncontrolled, disorderly and riotous traffic on the roads, the Traffic Police should be allowed to freely enforce the extant rules they met with a veritable Chinese Great Wall. They were plainly told the “netas” could not keep quiet when their friends, relatives or constituents requested for intervention on being caught on the wrong side of the law. Not only their prerogative, it was their duty towards their constituents and near and dear ones. Nothing could be a more frank admission of subversion of governance by our elected leaders for personal interests. In such an environment Traffic Police can do very little. In all probability, therefore, respite from the chaotic traffic on the city roads in the foreseeable future is unlikely despite the recent claims of “sushasan” (good governance) by the state government in full page ads on the birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The best option, therefore, that commends itself is strengthening of the public transport system. Bhopal for a long time did not have a public transport system barring the ramshackle minibuses that were and still are a horrific terror on the roads. Under the JN National Urban Renewal Mission the Centre mercifully provided for modern and decent low-floor buses. Their fleet has been gradually enlarged and some more are likely to be added, including air-conditioned ones. Good, decent and punctual buses will only nudge people away from their personal vehicles, be it a two wheeler or a four wheeler. As roads become more and more congested (which is very likely when BRTS is commissioned) and traffic becomes more riotous pushing the figures of casualties northwards people will surely take to the buses. The managements of the transportation services will have, however, to inspire confidence of the commuting public in their services by running well-maintained buses punctually to attract the middle classes. Disruptions in services, as happened, recently would need to be strictly avoided. This will be of benefit in several ways, such as helping the commuter to save on daily commutes, saving precious fuel 70% of which is imported, reducing congestion on the roads and reducing emission of carbon in the atmosphere of an already warmed-up globe. A well-oiled public transport system will also help in mitigating the ever-increasing parking woes of the people. The Corporation may also find a bit of a respite from pressures for provision of larger and larger parking spaces. Since the Red and Purple buses are currently being run under the management of the Municipal Corporation it is in its own interest to strive for their ever-rising acceptance among the commuters.

Too many foreigners weighing down India

A group of 140 overstaying Pakistani Hindus have expressed the desire to remain in India and make Delhi their home. They came to India from Sindh on tourist visa and for fear of being targeted are afraid to go back. With visas expired, they live in utter penury in Majnu Ka Tila in Delhi and have only one appeal for the Government of India that their visas should be extended. They would also like the government to provide them proper accommodation. These people from 27 families waited for years for their visas and were so desperate that once they got them they walked across to India. According to them they always felt unsafe in their own country and were subjected to discrimination. Not only they had no religious freedom, their children were ill-treated in schools, i.e. if they were allowed to join one. Always being told to convert to Islam, they would like to give up their home country and live in India, they said, just as numerous Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Tibetans live here.

They are mistaken if they think they are the only Pakistani Hindus who want to permanently make their home in India. Before them, hundreds and thousands of them came here with or without valid visas and never went back. And, all of them did not come only at the time of partition. Off and on, whenever, there were atrocities against Hindus, India would see an influx of Sindhi Hindus from Pakistan. A large number of them came after the 1971 War that resulted in dismemberment of Pakistan, arousing in it great antipathy for India and, of course, local Hindus. Even in normal times the process of ethnic cleansing has been continuing. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are two states which seem to have been receiving them in large numbers. In fact, the two states have been welcoming them more or less with open arms, presumably, for political gains. They constitute a solid vote bank for the BJP. An August 2011 report said that around 3500 Sindhis who migrated more than a decade ago on long-tem visas and residing in Madhya Pradesh are still awaiting citizenship. If anything, this is a great under-statement. There are far, far more than 3500 Sindhis in the state who do not have proper documents. Many of them have merged with the local population without observing official niceties and have established themselves in business.

Those now camping in Majnu ka Tila are right when they say numerous Bangladeshi and Nepalese are also living in India. Hindu Bangladeshi refugees always made a beeline for India whenever they were subjected to atrocities. Their numbers were never accurately determined but it is estimated that a million came post partition, another million in 1950s and around 5 million in 1960s, most came after the 1965 war with India. During the struggle for independence in 1970-71 about 10 million East Pakistani Hindus crossed over to India to avoid a veritable genocide. Not all of them went back; around 1.5 million are estimated to have stayed back.

But there has been no respite for India even after Bangladesh came into being. Migration, in fact infiltration, into India has been continuing and, currently, 20 million illegal Bangladeshis, mostly Muslims, are reportedly in residence in India. There is practically no state in Upper India which does not have their colonies. They have swamped several districts of Assam and border districts of West Bengal changing their demographics. In Assam as many as six districts now have Muslims in majority and in two in West Bengal. In Assam a violent socio-political movement was launched for their eviction. While the porous borders have helped easy accessibility, poor enforcement and rampant corruption has ensured the illegal immigrants to avail of the benefits they are not entitled to. Their presence in large numbers, largely by design, especially in the states of West Bengal and Assam (where their number is reported to be 5 million out of 26 million) has given rise to fears of Islamic fundamentalism and consequential security threats to India. There have been frequent reports of these illegal immigrants promoting the idea of a “Greater Bangladesh” inclusive of the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam.

The case of Nepalese in India, however, is entirely different. They are here in pursuance of the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950. Each, seemingly, fell into other’s lap out of fear on the emergence of the Red Dragon on their northern borders. The rise of Communist China in 1949 and its subsequent invasion of Tibet heightened their security concerns. Under the Treaty, Nepalese citizens in India have all the rights of an Indian citizen and they do not require visas to enter India, except a valid identification card while entering India by air. Both countries have also agreed to grant, on a reciprocal basis in each other’s territories, the same privileges in the matter of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, etc. Curiously, however, while the citizens of Nepal have been exercising the rights granted under the Treaty Indians have not only have to have visas for entering Nepal but also are prevented under Nepalese laws to own and acquire property in Nepal. An estimated 10 million Nepalese are, as a consequence, residing and working in India, doing all kinds of jobs, including in the public and private sectors and in the Army, strengthening their country’s economy by remittances – largely informal – which amount to approximately 10% of its GDP.

Although the Nepalese find the 1950 Treaty unequal, strategic concerns apart, it appears to be highly unfavourable to India. The open borders between the two countries have allowed Nepalese to flood the country and take away from the locals millions of jobs in formal and informal sectors and share the resources that are increasingly becoming scarce. Besides, the open borders have been freely used by the Pakistani jihadists to spread mayhem and chaos in the country. While Nepal exports its so-called labour as a national policy, illegal Bangladeshis are plain and simple intruders having no right to be in India in such large numbers. Sadly, the Centre has hardly made any effort to prevent their ingress and has made, if at all, very feeble efforts to send them back. Even a rich country like the US adopts a very uncompromising attitude against those who breach its frontiers. Pakistan, on the other hand, is solving its communal problem by easing out its unwanted Hindus in hundreds and thousands. India, however has never taken up with Pakistan the question of crude treatment meted out to its Hindus even though President Musharraf during a press conference in Delhi had the audacity to make a comment about treatment in Indian Muslims. Surely he was aware that India hosted far more Muslims than Pakistan. He was, however, put in his place by one Maulana Madani who bluntly told Musharraf not get overly concerned about the wellbeing of Muslims in India.

This is not all. Apart from millions of Pakistani Hindus, Nepalese and Bangladeshis, there are a few thousand foreigners including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who have overstayed their visas having entered the country with valid documents. Add to that hundreds and thousands of Tibetan, Afghan, Sri Lankan and Burmese refugees to complete the picture. In India’s 1.2 billion people its neighbours have, thus, made the substantial contribution of close to 10%. Had the country – virtually a sub-continental refuge – not been weighed down by these foreigners, its economic profile perhaps would have been far different.