Conflict Induced Displacement and State Response in the Btad Areas of Assam
Author Name
Stutima Basistha and Moushumi Dutta Pathak
Author Address
Stutima Basistha, Gauhati University, Moushumi Dutta Pathak Arya Vidyapith College
Keywords
Conflict Induced Displacement
Abstract
The aim of the study is to understand the problems faced by the IDP’s inside the camp and the intervention of the state in solving such problems and to find out whether the state has been able to give long term solutions.
Internally Displaced People are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict situations of generalised violence, violations of human rights or natural or human made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border according to guiding principles on internal displacement of IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).Involuntary departureand the fact that the individual remains within his/her countryare the two defining elements of an IDP. The first element distinguishes IDPs from individuals who left their homes out of choice and could have otherwise safely remained where they lived. The second element explains why IDPs are not refugees. Refugees, by definition, are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence. In other respects, however, both categories of displaced persons often face similar risks and deprivations.
Worldwide there are 25 million internally displaced people. Violence causes millions of people to flee their home every year. The resulting displacement crises not only create logistical and humanitarian nightmares, this crisis also threatens international security and risks the lives of displaced people, aid-workers, and peacekeepers.
As already mentioned above that there are around 25 million IDP’s all over the world, I will have to narrow down my study to a particular area to have a overall understanding of the problems and challenges faced by the IDP’s. Thus, I chose to conduct my case study in Assam.
North-east India has been experiencing severe internal displacement since it entered into the post-colonial phase over the past five decades. It also received a steady flow of refugees from neighboring East Pakistan/ Bangladesh, Tibet and Myanmar, fleeing political, social, economic, ideological and environmental persecution. In recent years, however, another problem that has been engaging the attention of social scientists and policy analysts is that of internal displacement.
Society in Assam has historically been multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-caste, multi-class and multi-lingual in composition wherein the Assamese people have constituted the majority national group. Sociologically speaking, Assam's society has been extraordinarily plural in its composition and highly uneven in structure. Here Assam is conceptualized as a periphery within a larger periphery(India)in the global context. Its peripheral location and its resultant under-development and distorted political response to underdevelopment have made the society in Assam perpetually vulnerable to various kinds of violence, conflict and displacement.
Assam is again a big area to study about the IDP’s . Thus, to make my study a successful one I decided to take up Kokrajhar district of Assam as my field area where a recent ethnic violence took place between two indigenous communities, the bodos and the muslims, and to witness t
Conference
International Conference on "Global Migration: Rethinking Skills, Knowledge and Culture"