The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has registered a complaint filed by the Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) on December 2 against racial profiling of Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh through an exclusive census of both the communities from December 11-31.
The Deputy Commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district had on November 26 notified the “census of Chakmas and Hajongs 2021”, which the CDFI said was in clear violation of their right to life, including the right to privacy and the right to equality.
The Deputy Commissioner has denied such a notification.
The PMO wrote to the State’s Chief Secretary on December 7 seeking appropriate action on the complaint and informing it on the matter.
There are about 65,000 Chakmas and Hajongs in the State; about 4,500 are migrants from 1964 to 1969. The rest are descendants and citizens by birth under Section 3 of the Citizenship Act of 1955, the CDFI said.
The migrants were primarily displaced by the Kaptai dam in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of present-day Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan.
The CDFI had termed the exclusive Chakma-Hajong census in the State as an act of racial profiling “because there is no census on the illegal immigrants from Myanmar and China, the illegal immigrants who had entered through Assam as well as thousands of people who had entered Arunachal Pradesh without inner line permit (ILP)”.
“On the contrary, the Chakmas and Hajongs were settled by the Union of India from 1964 to 1969 to permanently settle them in the State and they do not require ILP,” the CDFI said.
ILP is a temporary travel permit required for Indian citizens to enter Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland besides Arunachal Pradesh. The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873 necessitates this permit.
Many indigenous groups see the Chakmas and Hajongs as outsiders and have been demanding their “deportation” besides denial of voting rights and access to government schemes.
