Barisal river gypsies still neglected

Though discrimination against any community living in today's heterogeneous society is more or less subtle, less frequently expressed in public and widely seen as unacceptable, that against the river gypsies living in different areas of Barisal Sadar and Babuganj upazilas is still common and frequently overt.

Ostracism by the mainstream communities and marginalisation by the local administration add to the miseries and ignorance of many members of the group, who do not even know how old they are or how to count. All they know is fishing, which they live on.

These people numbering around 5,000 are used to living in floating boats in the upazilas' Sandha, Arial Kha and and Sugandhya rivers.

Sukkurjanbibi, a member of the community, said, "I can only remember that I was born before the Liberation War, but I cannot exactly say how old I am."

Asked how old she was, Hajera Begum, another woman, was just laughing without any reply.

Asked again how they were spending time, she replied, "through fishing in the rivers."

Complaints from these people include: services being refused; harassment by the mainstream communities and negligence by the local administration.

"We cannot school our kids as the school environment is not as conducive for our children as for many others. They [gipsy children] know nothing but fishing," said Jasim Sarder, a leader of the community.

Being unable to bury their deads as they have no lands of their own or cannot afford the costs of burying at public graveyards far away from their living areas, the gipsies set the corpses adrift in the rivers, said Abdur Rashid Talukder of the community.

Despite some of them being issued national identification cards, they do not vote in elections as they are unaware of their rights and also there is no concerted effort from the government to encourage them to vote.

Moreover, many others remain excluded from population censuses while their children are yet to get their births registered.

In monsoon swelling rivers send them drifting across the waterways, and when the monsoon ends, they return to coastal areas to live in tarpaulin tents on their boats.

Hajera said, "We want some land so that we can live there with our families."

Contacted, Bahauddin Ahamed, chairman of Tungibaria union parishad (UP) of Sadar upazila, said, "We do not know where they live…they are not registered with this UP. So how can we help them out?"

Eliasur Rahaman, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Barisal Sadar upazila, said," Rehabilitating and keeping a record of these people is kind of difficult since they are constantly plying far and wide in the rivers.  Hence they remain counted out of development initiatives, being excluded from the benefits."

Whatever the impediments to ameliorating their conditions, what is astonishing as well as appalling is that such deprivation continues even in the present day despite a wealth of development organisations, both government and non-government, dedicated to promoting equality and human rights and protecting underprivileged people against discrimination.