Women of Assam

 

The 2019 update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam marked a tectonic shift in the lives of nearly two million people, abruptly branding them "illegal immigrants" and stripping away their Indian nationality. While the bureaucratic machinery impacted entire communities, the burden has fallen with disproportionate severity on women. In a patrilineal system that demands rigorous "legacy data"—documentation explicitly linking an individual to a citizen father or husband, women find themselves trapped in a morass of historical record-keeping and societal norms that are founded on sketchy databases and fault-ridden procedures.

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For indigenous Bengali women in Assam, proving a linear heritage is an almost impossible task. Many were married at a young age and relocated to new places, often before 1985, when the registration of births and marriages was still optional. The vast majority possess no birth certificates or school records, and the state is prone to floods that submerged a vast majority of the population; many women lost documentation they had to support their identity. Even minor discrepancies in the spelling of a surname or a perceived age gap in official papers have been used by authorities to invalidate their claims. The NRC, tasked with verifying citizenship, rejected as many as fourteen different supporting documents, relegating these women to "foreigner" status despite their deep Indian roots.

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The consequences of these administrative failures are visceral and violent. Following the rulings of Foreigners Tribunals of the state government, thousands of women have been sent to detention camps, where many remained languishing for over years. The judicial process is an exhausting gauntlet of high legal costs and endless appeals that many families simply cannot afford. Furthermore, the rise of digital notices has exacerbated the crisis, as illiterate families often miss online summons, leading to their classification as "D-voters" or Doubtful Voters without their knowledge.

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The Women of Assam serves to amplify the stories of those victimized by these systemic flaws. The photographs presented here feature the women representing the thousands who are victims of ultra-nationalists. This anonymity is a necessary safeguard against the ongoing threat of harassment and imprisonment on false pretexts. These women, for security reason’s identity and locations are not being disclosed, embody the diverse cultural fabric – Hindus and Muslims - of Assam; though they are politically labelled as "illegal," their presence is a testament to a lived history that transcends the narrow definitions of a state ledger.

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