A 22-YEAR-OLD from Satkhira district in southwest Bangladesh, bordering the Indian state of West Bengal, shared the story of how she and her family had ended up in India some two years ago. Back in Bangladesh, she recalled, they lived on just BDT 200 a day – just over USD 2 at the time – the meager income her father made working in a biscuit factory. One day, he stopped receiving his salary. Their debts began to mount. Then, in 2020 and 2021, Cyclone Amphan and Cyclone Yaas struck their village in close succession. Soon they lost all their belongings, including their home.
The 22-year-old’s father then worked gruelling hours as a farm labourer, but he was always underpaid. “Even food was a luxury. Sometimes, there were days when we didn’t eat at all,” she said. Her father was unable to repay the debt he had taken on to rebuild their house after the cyclones.
“Goons threatened to kidnap me and force me to marry one of them to recover their losses. I was 16 at the time,” she recalled. “That’s when my father contacted a family member living in India, and we decided to leave the country for good.” The family crossed the porous border into India about two years ago, and she became one more of the many undocumented migrants from Bangladesh pushed into India by poverty and the climate crisis.
We spoke to the 22-year-old from Satkhira huddled in a van in a village in West Bengal, a couple of hours walk from the Bangladesh border. Her gaze constantly darted to the people passing by. She feared that if her origins were revealed, she might be sent back.