The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a national consultation in the city demanded voting rights and national identity cards for the camp based Urdu speaking community living in the country.

They observed that these 160,000 Urdu speaking people languishing in 116 settlements in different parts of the country are citizens of Bangladesh and should enjoy rights to education, health and employment as well.

There is no coherent policy in the registration of voter list for them, though the inter-ministerial meeting decided in principle to bestow citizenship to them. Apparently the Law Ministry vetted against it, said the speakers.

Registration of the camp based people has been completed in Khulna regions. But the registration was denied in Dhaka and Chittagong regions, they said. The consultation on 'Claiming Effective Citizenship Rights: Inclusion of Urdu speaking people in voter list and national ID card scheme' organised by Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of Dhaka University under the aegis of Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty was held at the National Press Club yesterday.

Dr CR Abrar, Professor of Department of International Relations of Dhaka University, presented keynote paper, while Nurul Kabir, Editor of New Age, moderated the session.

"A growing number of the young generation in particular now consider themselves to be Bangladeshis and their eligibility under the laws of citizenship of Bangladesh has been further cemented by pronouncements of the higher judiciary," said Dr Abrar.

In practice very little has changed for the majority of the community and effective citizenship rights have never been realised, he noted.

Nurul Kabir said, "The camp based Urdu speaking people are now living in Bangladesh without having any state. They have no voting right. We cannot play any effective role for them till now. No human rights organisation has come forward for them. It is a concerned matter not only for them but also for us."

"We should give them opportunity for survival of their livelihood," he said.

Speakers urged the government to give effective citizenship rights to the camp based Urdu-speaking people.

They also urged all to pressurise Election Commission (EC) to give them opportunity of voting rights.

Rashed Khan Menon, President of Workers Party, Farida Akhter, women activist, Mohammad Asaduzzaman, lawyer, MI Faruqui, legal expert, Dr Pias Karim, Professor of Law Department of BRAC University, among others, spoke at the meeting.