A woman identified as Sayera Begum reportedly committed suicide ind epair of non-inclusion in the NRC final list, reports Pratidintime.com. In the first of the post-NRC final list publication casualties, Sayera Begum, from 1. No Dulabari in Rezpur reportedly jumped into a well when she read that her name was not the on the final list. There is no confirmation at all whether her exclusion from the NRC list was real or not. Reports of the death were known within an hour and fifteen minutes of the list being made public.
The report may be read here.
Minutes past 10 a.m. on August 31, the NRC Coordinator’s office through its office in Guwahati announced that as many as 3,11,21,004 have been included in the final NRC list and 19,06,657 have been left out. The NRC is a process being undertaken by the Coordinator under the supervision of the Supreme Court of India since 2009. Reports of the suicide were reported by the web portal by 11.40 a.m.
While over the past week, the Assam government and even its police were appealing to people not to despair, the NRC and Citizenship process has taken its toll on the unlettered and marginalised in Assam. Until August 22, 2019 a week before the publication of the final list, there were no reassuring statements forthcoming from the state government. Last Saturday, for the first time, Sabaranandan Sonowal appealed to people on all local television channels ‘not to despair’ as not all those excluded were not Indian citizens. He hd also stated that legal aid would be provided to all those excluded to navigate the tortuous route of establishing their existence in Foreigners Tribunals.
In July 2019, CJP compiled a list of citizenship and NRC related deaths in Assam: In Assam, nearly 60 people have lost their lives and their deaths are connected to citizenship related issues. While some have allegedly committed suicide due to frustration, anxiety and helplessness related to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), some allegedly took their own lives fearing incarceration in detention camps. There are also some people who died under rather mysterious circumstances in detention camps. The CJP team has painstakingly compiled and verified these deaths and here is the list as of July 18, 2019.
Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held discussions on the impending situation arising out the final publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list on August 31,2019. Following these meetings, local media reported that a policy decision has been taken to give legal aid to all those excluded from the list.
Significantly, Sonowal has gone out of the way to assert that there was no need to panic and not all those excluded from the final list are ‘not necessarily not Indians.’ With a week to go, and anxieties mounting on the situation that hundreds of thousands may have to face given the bureaucratic hurdles and ‘mistakes’ that are anticipated, these announcements are welcome, if not overdue.
The MHA has also reportedly extended the deadline for the filing of appeals to 120 days (two months). What is still unclear is whether this date will start getting counted from the date when the victims of exclusion get the ‘certified copy of the order from NRC and all documents’ or not. This would be crucial in making these appeals viable and effective. The MHA press release may be read here,