Assam riots: Relief camp statistics throw up curious anomalies: India Today

2012-08-23 12:32 am

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Assam riots: Relief camp statistics throw up curious anomalies

KAUSHIK DEKA | Guwahati, August 22, 2012 | 20:50

How many people actually got displaced in the recent spate of violence between Bodos and Muslims of foreign origin that began in the Kokrajhar district of Assam on July 20 and then spread to the adjoining Bodoland Teritorrial Autonomous DistrictsChirang and Bakasa? According to the Assam Government, at the peak of the violence, 4,85,921 people were in 340 relief camps in the four districts of Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Chirang and Bongaigaon. The displaced were mainly Bodo and Muslim people from Kokrajhar and Chirang districts. According to the 2011 Census, the total population of Kokrajhar and Chirang is 13,68,817. The 2001 Census puts Kokrajhar's Muslim population at 20 per cent and assuming the same for Chirang, the approximate Muslim population in both districts would be 2,73,764. The Bodos are nearly one third of the total population of the four districts of BTAD. So, the highest possible Bodo population in Chirang and Kokrajhar will be 4,56,273. Now if it is assumed that the entire Muslim population of Chirang and Kokrajhar has been uprooted while 50 per cent of the Bodos had to leave home, the cumulative number for displaced will be 5, 01,900, just 15,979 above the government mentioned figure. But did the violence displace the entire Muslim population of the two districts? District officials of both Kokrajhar and Chirang told Mail Today that not even 50 per cent of the Muslim population was affected while the percentage if even less for the Bodos. Even if it's assumed that 50 per cent of both Muslims and Bodos were affected, the number of total displaced should be 2,88,973. The Bodo leadership claims that the number of people is strangely increasing in the relief camps in Dhubri where only Muslims have been sheltered. As on August 21, there are 1,46,214 people in Dhubri alone while another 1,18,863 people are in the camps of other three districts. The claim by Dhubri MP and AIUDF chief Baduruddin Ajmal that there were over 5 lakh Muslims in the relief camps has only added to the apprehension of the Bodo leaders. That's why the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) has demanded that the credentials of the inmates of the relief camps should be checked before they are rehabilitated in the BTAD areas.
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Assam riots: Relief camp statistics throw up curious anomalies: India Today

2012-08-23 12:32 am

Deputy Chief of the BTC, Khampa Borgoyari said that the possibility of bringing in "outsiders" to the BTAD area by taking advantage of the situation could not be ruled out as there is something wrong with the figures of the people now staying in the relief camps. "According to our estimate the Muslim population in Kokrajhar is around 2.36 lakh. How can more than 4.5 lakh people reach these camps? It is hard to believe that the Muslim population increased so sharply in one year and it is also a fact that less than 50 per cent of the total Muslim population in Kokrajhar was affected by the clashes," he said. That brings the focus to Dhubri, a district long considered to be ground zero for illegal Muslim immigrants. Dhubri, the easternmost district on the northern bank of Brahmaputra, has a Muslim population of over 74.3 per cent of the total population of 15,66,396, according to 2001 Census. The district showed a decadal growth rate of 24.4 per cent between 2001 and 2011, registering a population of 19,48,632 in 2011. And it's not Dhubri alone. All six districts in AssamDhubri, Goalpara, Barpeta, Nagaon, Karimganj and Hailakandiwhich had Muslim population of over 50 per cent, according to the Census of 2001, registered a decadal growth rate of over 20 per cent, significantly above the state average of 16.9 per cent.

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