He came to Kakrikhola ME School along with his village people when a mob attacked their village suddenly on July 21 during violent attacks and counter attacks, arson and looting of property by miscreants from among the Bodos and the Muslims in Kokrajhar and neighbouring districts in the month of July. The mob torched all the houses of the village destroying their properties, paddy stored in granaries and killed and looted livestock and killed Dandi Basumatari, an elderly lady, who was bed-ridden with paralysis.

Since then, the village people have been languishing in the relief camp set up at the Kakrikhola ME School along with inmates of two other Bodo villages namely Chakrasila I and Chakrasila II. The 907 odd inmates of the camp comprised of 194 displaced families have been accommodating themselves in three different classrooms of the school in congestion and in filth, sleeping on the coarse earthen floor. While female inmates manage to sleep inside the classrooms during nights, male try to accommodate by sleeping on the front verandah of the school. When there is rain during nights, they have to wake up and pass the night sitting here and there and talking about the village days, as the entire verandah gets soaked in rain water.

“Although we have been asking for arrangement of sufficient security in our villages so that we can go back, the administration is yet to ensure us safety.”

“For last two months, this has become the course of our life. The violence took place at a time when all of us were busy preparing the paddy-fields for the next season of cultivation. The clash has once again ruined us of everything. Now it is impossible to return to our villages not only due to security reasons, but also because we will have nothing to eat for survival in those areas”, says the village headman, the worry of confronting the issues of hunger they would likely to face in villages if they return writ large on his face.

Earlier too, villagers of Bangaldoba had to face displacement in 1998, when a series of ethnic clashes between the Bodos and the Adivasis took  hundreds lives  and displaced over three lakh people in Kokrajhar and undivided Bongaigaon districts in lower Assam.
 
Like Bangaldoba, the two other villages too are revenue villages that have kept alive traditional way of life of the Bodos and surrounded by villages of Muslim community. They have been living together peacefully till the clash took place during the month of July. Most of the Muslims living nearby used to earn their living as share-cropper on the paddy fields of the Bodo people. Even, when sporadic incidents of violence and killing took place, they took a decision not to attack each-other and maintain peace and harmony in their localities and their interdependence. But all such efforts went in vain.

“Most of the attackers came from outside areas and we could not identify even a single of them. They came in huge numbers, like a massive cloud, torched the village in broad daylight, in front of our eyes,” as narrated by Galhira Basumatari, village headman of Chakrasila I, now a camp inmate.

Mr Anup Kumar Brahma, the camp-in-charge of Kakrikhola ME School, who is a government employee at Soil Conservation Department says, ration as per government relief manual that include rice, dal, salt and edible oil have been provided regularly to the camp inmates. In addition, the administration has also provided potatoes, soap, hair oil and some other things for the inmates to maintain health and hazards. Provision of safe drinking water with filters and installation of five temporary latrines has been made inside the camp premises by the Public Health and Engineering Department.

These camp-dwellers are victims of violence and clash that took place in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts during July between the Bodos and the Muslims that took lives of 97 persons belonging to both the communities. The clashes displaced over 4.85 lakh people during the peak. Of these, 1,79,755 displaced persons were still languishing 198 relief camps in different relief camps in Kokrajhar and neighbouring districts as on September 28. They include 1,65,691 Muslims taking shelter in 173 camps and 14, 064 Bodos taking shelter in 25 camps.

Like them, in Tulsibil Relief Camp located in Tulsibil area of Kokrajhar district – where 2,097 camp inmates belonging to Muslim community of 12 different villages have been taking shelter since July 21, condition of the inmates are no better, rather they are facing acute shortage of fuel-wood and clothes to wear. The women and children are worst-hit by this, says Jehirul Haque Sarkar, the camp-in-charge.

“The shortage of fuel-wood has compelled the inmates to cook their square meals at one time, so that it can be addressed to some extent,” he says.

In Gambaribil Relief camp, where over 2,229 camp inmates of 442 Bodo families from  over five different villages have been taking shelter, alleged that sufficient number of potatoes, which used to be given to all the relief camps, is missing from their regular ration, forcing them to search for wild vegetables to go with the meal.

After two months of the clash, as a huge section of these conflict-hit victims have already returned to their original villages, thanks to efforts initiated by government and community for maintenance of peace and harmony, uncertainty looms large over  most of those who are still languishing in camps and are unable to return for fear of possible attack by the ‘other group’, as the inmates say.

The villagers of Tulsibil, Tulbibil-Lakhigaon, Aminkata, Aminkata- Mainakata and Khaskata – all living in Gambaribil Relief camp state that as these villages are surrounded by villages of ‘other community’ there is every reason of a ‘possible attack’ if they return.  For over hundreds of Bodo families of Tintila, Alubhui, Basri and Dhubri – now forced to live in DTO Office Relief Camp in Kokrahar town, situation is even worse  as their villages  are located in Bilasipara area of Dhubri district, outside the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council (BTC)  area. On other hand Dhubri district has the highest number of relief camp inmates and as on September 28 a total of 1,01,244 inmates were taking shelter in 129 camps for Muslims, a large number of them being from BTAD areas, who fled their homes and took shelter in these relief camps during the clash.

“Although we have been asking for arrangement of sufficient security in our villages so that we can go back, the administration is yet to ensure us safety. It is hard to ask for rehabilitation grant when the administration itself is not confident enough to provide safety and security in these areas” says Meche Musahari a camp-inmate of Kakrikhola Relief Camp.  
The recent announcement of Bodoland Territorial Council chief Mr  Hagrama Mohilary that the BTC administration would permit rehabilitation of the displaced Muslim families in their original villages, only after securitizing all relevant documents including land documents and proof of their Indian citizenship – have made the rehabilitation process of these huge number of Muslims families an uncertain one. Earlier, the Assam Government stated that the victim families irrespective of community would be sent back to their respective villages as soon as possible.

As the rehabilitation process hangs in balance particularly for those hailing from sensitive areas issues like maintenance of health and hygiene as well as continuation of academic activities become a major challenge for the administration, as most of the relief camps had been established in educational institutions.  

The Education minister of the state Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier announced that schools would be opened within 15 days immediately after end of the July summer vacation session by making alternative arrangements. As part of the efforts, students of those institutions where camps have been established adjusted with the nearby school. Thus, for that particular school it has became a double burden.  Again, the children of clash-victims of that particular camp too, have been attached to such nearby institutions. In most cases such institutions have been bearing the burden of educating three different educational institutions.

“This has made us to run the school in two different shifts - one from 8 A.M. to 11 A.M.  and the other is from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. Thus although education has restored for namesake, after such a devastating situation, it is hard to provide them quality education,” says M. Mullah a teacher of Tulsibil Relief Camp.

In reality, four schools  have been running simultaneously  inside the Tulsibil Relief Camp premises located in the main school-building of Tulsibil High School. The pre-primary and Class I students manage themselves on an open yard, while the primary school is run under a tin-roof shed meant for a bi-cycle stand. The ME section is running in two different shifts in two classrooms. For the students of Class IX and X, classes are yet to be started. However, their teachers have made special arrangements for Class X students, who will appear their final exam, says Mr. Mullah.

In such a situation, running of Midday Meal Scheme (MMD) which would have been a crucial tool to provide some nutrition and to address hunger issues to some extent has become a daydream. This again, has a negative impact on attendance, particularly for girl-students, says S Rahman, another teacher.  However, the opening up of schools has helped many students particularly the young children to overcome the trauma they faced immediately after the clash.

In such devastation, regular and free health care services, provided by the Department of Health have been instrumental in addressing major health issues like diarrhea and other water-born diseases. At least, a doctor with his medical team visits these camps each day from 8 A.M. to 2 P.M.. From 2 P.M. onwards, there is an on call duty arrangement for the camp dwellers in two different shifts. Pregnant mothers have been given the necessary care in the camp visited. So far, only one case of death of mother and child has been registered.  Temporary latrines have been installed in these relief camps and safe drinking water with sufficient water-filter has been given either by government, or by non-government agencies.
 
All such health interventions have kept these camps free from occurrences of any kind of diseases to take an epidemic form. However, when there is uncertainty of protection of life and property no amount of material relief provided to inmates of relief camps is sufficient to end their trauma. Mutual trust among the two communities and adequate security in the villages from where they were displaced have remained the most essential requirements for about 1.79 lakh displaced people still taking shelter in relief camps in the violence-hit districts and camp inmates say that only when these two vital needs are fulfilled they can feel safe to return home and try to rebuild their lives.