14th Session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, 2 & 3rd December 2021 Statement by Atiqur Rahman Barbhuiya, India Participant ID: 1159797 The Human Rights to Adequate Housing and Land in India : Report to the United Nations Human Rights Council for India’s Third Universal Periodic Review has covered adequately the human rights violations in the name of development. It is important to point out that Assam mostly has two kinds of people displaced within the state: one by river erosion and the other by ethnic violence. I would like to highlight the most recent land acquision by the provincial Government of Assam in India. According to authorities, 1,200-1,300 families who had “illegally” occupied roughly 10,000 bighas of government land have been cleared. Ironically, previous Government has established 3 primary public health centres, 2 upper primary schools, 40 primary schools and 42 Anganwadi centres (Nursery Schools) for newly levelled ‘encroachers’. The children are now deprived of basic human rights to shelter, food, education, health and security. The Government wants to provide employment to 500 unemployed Indegenious persons (may be read as Hindu) by stripping around 7,000 to 8,000 Muslim people of their livelihoods and shelter. This is perhaps first of such Community Farm Project after evicting community benefitting 500 people depriving 7000 people. It is important to point out that Assam mostly has two kinds of people displaced within the state: one by river erosion and the other by ethnic violence. It may be noted that the people who first settled in the area are in their late 70s and 80s. Once a parched sand dune, the neglected land hosted climate refugees and victims of the violent Assam movement from various districts. The ousting of Muslims from their homes and livelihoods is being seen as an act of “vindication” against the minority community. This and series of evictions since the new regime in 2016 are in tandem with BJP’s poll promise of clearing forest and government land from encroachers and settling “indigenous” landless people on these lands. These evictions conform to the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment, which is the dominant political narrative in Assam. These forced land acquisition has impacted a range of human rights—including the rights to life, food, work/livelihood, housing, health, water, and security of the person and home—and have long-term implications on social justice, food security, equality, and climate change. Therefore the internal displacment of the people of particular community in Assam need to be looked from the lens of the ‘indivisibility of human rights.