Merely 15 per cent of the children residing in these camps
have the opportunity to avail of basic education. Till the mid-90s, the lone school run in the Geneva camp used to receive a yearly allocation of school textbooks from the local education officer as elementary education had been made compulsory and free for all by the government. “Since 1996, they stopped giving these allocated material on the pretext that our school is not registered,” laments one of the teachers.
But that is just a vicious cycle. To obtain free textbooks, the school needs to be registered; and to do so, it has to furnish a deed of possession for the piece of land it is constructed on. And that cannot happen as Biharis can’t own that land.
Lack of proper sanitation is another big problem. “We have only 150 toilets for 25,000 people of the camp,” says Abdur Razzaq Khan, another resident. “No one thinks of us, not Bangladesh, not Pakistan,” he laments. “We aren't accepted here, we'll never be.”
But is Pakistan willing to accommodate them? Well, the answer is tricky. In 1973, under a tripartite accord between Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the Pakistani regime received a total of 1, 26,941 persons. An extra 18,000 were repatriated in 1979, some 9,000 in 1982 and 325 in 1993. Then the procedure stopped dead. Today, the number of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh is around 3, 00,000.
After 38 years of Pakistani assurances that haven’t been acted upon, the sullenness is now obvious. “The reigning select few of Pakistan, particularly the politicos and civil servants, are accountable for this”, says an angry Jamil. “More than Rs 100 crores was collected in Pakistan to facilitate our repatriation and settlement, but even after a decade we are yet to receive the money.”
Adding insult to injury is the behaviour of the staff at the Pakistan High Commission. Jamil once wanted to visit a friend in Pakistan whose daughter was getting married. The officials at the Pakistan High Commission stared several times alternately at his passport and his face and asked, “Wahan jaake kahin bas to nahi jaoge?” Jamil retorted, “Arre tumhare yahaan koi jannat nahi hai mian.” He remembers leaving the high commission in tears that day.
have the opportunity to avail of basic education. Till the mid-90s, the lone school run in the Geneva camp used to receive a yearly allocation of school textbooks from the local education officer as elementary education had been made compulsory and free for all by the government. “Since 1996, they stopped giving these allocated material on the pretext that our school is not registered,” laments one of the teachers.But that is just a vicious cycle. To obtain free textbooks, the school needs to be registered; and to do so, it has to furnish a deed of possession for the piece of land it is constructed on. And that cannot happen as Biharis can’t own that land.
Lack of proper sanitation is another big problem. “We have only 150 toilets for 25,000 people of the camp,” says Abdur Razzaq Khan, another resident. “No one thinks of us, not Bangladesh, not Pakistan,” he laments. “We aren't accepted here, we'll never be.”
But is Pakistan willing to accommodate them? Well, the answer is tricky. In 1973, under a tripartite accord between Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, the Pakistani regime received a total of 1, 26,941 persons. An extra 18,000 were repatriated in 1979, some 9,000 in 1982 and 325 in 1993. Then the procedure stopped dead. Today, the number of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh is around 3, 00,000.
After 38 years of Pakistani assurances that haven’t been acted upon, the sullenness is now obvious. “The reigning select few of Pakistan, particularly the politicos and civil servants, are accountable for this”, says an angry Jamil. “More than Rs 100 crores was collected in Pakistan to facilitate our repatriation and settlement, but even after a decade we are yet to receive the money.”
Adding insult to injury is the behaviour of the staff at the Pakistan High Commission. Jamil once wanted to visit a friend in Pakistan whose daughter was getting married. The officials at the Pakistan High Commission stared several times alternately at his passport and his face and asked, “Wahan jaake kahin bas to nahi jaoge?” Jamil retorted, “Arre tumhare yahaan koi jannat nahi hai mian.” He remembers leaving the high commission in tears that day.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative
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