In Bihar, there is a political fierce battle over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) being run by the Election Commission to identify the voters. Before the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, the purpose of this initiative of EC is to remove fake voters from the list and add new voters. But the opposition alleges that the government has launched this campaign to find out the citizenship of the people.
Question on voter list investigation in Bihar
Despite not having citizens in many states of the country including Bihar, many people have gained the right to voting. In the area of Seemanchal, the number of such voters is said to be very high and citizens of countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar have entered here after infiltrating. The opposition alleges that the government wants to take away the right to voting from such people through SIR, who have not been able to prove their citizenship for any reason.
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No country gives its citizens the right to vote, the intruders do not have the right to vote or choose a government. Even during the SIR process, many people complain that they do not have enough evidence to prove citizenship, for which they give different reasons. Also, there are questions about the 11 documents which the government has described as necessary for SIR, because the Aadhaar card has not been given a place in it.
Who are the stateless?
In such a situation, they know about those people who do not have citizenship of any country. Such people are called nongs or stateless. There are more than one crore people in the world who do not have citizenship of any country. Neither they have their own country nor are they citizens of any country.
The stateless person does not come under the purview of the law of any country, nor can any country implement his law on it. Such a person is deprived of the facilities and rights provided to the citizens of the country. Such a person has no identity in the country, even though he has been living there for many years, but he has no legal status.
How does citizenship take away?
For example, if a person is married to a foreign national and has started living in his country. But he did not get citizenship of his partner’s country and he has given up his original citizenship after marriage, so the person becomes stateless during that time. Because he does not have citizenship of any country. The children of such couples also face citizenship crisis and their children can also be stateless.
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A few years ago, amidst tension with India, Nepal refused to give citizenship to the Indian girls who went there after getting married. Many times, due to lack of legal documents and technical disturbances, many people become stateless. But in these circumstances, citizenship is restored after completing the documents.
How many people are in the world?
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR, in November 2018, about 1.2 crore people of the world did not have citizenship of any country. The United Nations institution said that 75 percent of the stateless people are from minority groups and about one -third of children are also included. In all countries of the world including India, non-citizens do not have the right to vote.
If the parents of a child are stateless or from different countries, then the child born is also deprived of citizenship, because in many countries the citizenship of parents is fixed only by citizenship of the child. Apart from this, due to the ongoing struggles and political reasons around the world, there is a large number of illegal migration and no country is ready to make the intruders its citizen, the Rohingya community settled in India is an example of this.
What is the difference between Refugee and Stateless?
Refugee or refugee people are said to be people who have left their country due to any fear and are not ready to go there now. Due to war, political instability and discrimination, some class people are oppressed and such people leave their country and become refugee, but they have citizenship.
In some cases, refugees surrender the citizenship of the original country to gain citizenship of another country. If in such circumstances, no new country gives citizenship to a refugee, then they will be called a stateless.
What challenges do you face?
It is not possible to become a passport or visa without citizenship and in such a situation, the stateless people cannot travel to any country in a legal way. Also, it is difficult for them to get justice in a country and seek legal help. Socially, stateless people are seen with suspicion and they have to fall prey to discrimination.
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The Rohingya Muslim community living in Myanmar has been declared stateless, due to which millions of people are forced to live in refugee camps. Also, some of them are living illegally in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Many people who have gone from India in South Asia have not received citizenship and are forced to live in the stateless.
Steps taken for rights
UNHCR has launched a campaign called ‘I Belong’ to help the stateless people, which aims to eliminate statelessness by 2024. In the year 1961, there was also a treaty about it, which was aimed at protecting their rights. But many countries have not yet implemented this treaty. In most countries of the world, stateless people are still marginalized.
India is also not a part of this treaty. Nevertheless, some stateless communities like Tibetan refugees and Sri Lankan Tamil have been living in the country for a long time. Special identity cards have also been issued for such communities, but these people do not have all the rights to the Indian citizen.
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