76-yr-old refugee struggles to get citizenship under CAA for lack of parents' Bangladeshi birth certificates

Time of India

21 hours ago

Nagpur: It has been an year since Gauri Shankar Mallick, a 76-year-old refugee from erstwhile East Pakistan, applied under the
Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA) to get Indian citizenship. His file is stuck as the govt is insisting on submission of the birth certificates of his parents, which Mallick says is impossible to get from what is now Bangladesh in a flux.
A recent communication sent to Mallick from the govt states that even though the rest of his documents have been submitted, it is mandatory to provide proof of his parents' date of birth or his own birth certificate. None of these are available, he says.
Like millions of Hindus escaping killings by the Pakistani army, Mallick came to India in 1970 with his relatives from Khulna in East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh a year later.
His parents joined him later, and they finally found place in the Mana refugee camp set up at Raipur, now the capital of Chhattisgarh. "The entire family was scattered due to the chaos and there was no means of communication either," he says.
As reported by TOI earlier, Mallick submitted all the documents, including those issued from the refugee camp. Yet, the authorities still want proof of his parents' date of birth to be uploaded on the portal, says the document shared with TOI.
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All Mallick has is his mother Kalisdasi's death certificate. "My father, Shubhlal Mallick, who was then in his seventies, died in the refugee camp itself. My mother lived with me in Gadchiroli until around 2000. Now, how can I get their birth certificates from Bangladesh, especially now when there is fresh trouble in the country?" he asks.
Repeated emails to the home ministry have only been met with silence, says Mallick, who now lives in Gondia with his son.
Mallick and his family settled in India like other East Pakistanis. They got land in the interiors of Gadchiroli, and he also got a job in a Bengali school started by the Indian govt for refugee children.
More than 50 years down the line, leading a retired life, Mallick applied for a passport in 2019 and was asked to submit citizenship proof, he says. Later, he applied under CAA in 2024 when the law was notified.
The other papers submitted by Mallick include a ration card issued in 1990 and a certificate from the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education at Jessore, then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh, which was not considered enough.
Dr Subhodh Biswa, president of Nikhil Bangla Samanbay Samiti, an association of erstwhile East Pakistani Hindus, says the govt must ease the norms as it is leading to hardships for the applicants.
"How would others who came in the later years escaping religious persecution get citizenship if Mallick, who officially landed at a refugee camp 50 years ago, struggles to get the official status as an Indian national? After so many years, the question of obtaining citizenship should not arise at all," said Biswas.
Another source involved in CAA applications also confirmed that birth certificates of parents are mandatory with citizenship applications.