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For more than four decades of his
life, Khitish Burman, an Indian, lived a stateless existence in a small pocket
land in Bangladesh.
These enclaves – 111 in
Bangladesh and 51 in India – about 50,000 people lived until July 2015
when the two countries exchanged control of their lands in their respective territories.
Residents were asked to choose
where they wanted to live and what nationality they would prefer.
Mr. Burman and his extended family
decided to leave their house and their big garden and their farm in Bangladesh and move
across the border at Dinhata to Cooch Behar, West Bengal.
They received citizenship papers
and voter cards in recognition of their new Indian citizenship.
More than three years later, they
continue to live in a camp with tin-roofed housing. Government provides free to 58 camp families
rice, lentils and cooking oil.
But Mr. Burman did not receive any land,
and does not have a sustainable source of livelihood.
Life is a struggle: he sometimes works for 200 rupees (£ 2.20) a day; other times, he squats on the side of the road and sells cheap clothes.
"I am a farmer and I need to farm," he says.
Yet he came out this morning to cast his ballot.
Mr. Burman, age 51, says he voted purely because it was a right he had acquired after being a stateless citizen for nearly five decades.
"For 48 years of my life, I've never had the chance to vote, I voted because voting made you feel empowered, it's a right and gives me the dignity, that's the only reason I voted. "
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