Turmoil due to Bru Resettlement in Tripura

Context

Bru refugee resettlement faces opposition from Ranglong community in North Tripura.

Background

The issue of Bru or Reang refugee rehabilitation in North Tripura district is snowballing into a major concern. The several Tripura based Mizo bodies are vehemently opposing Government’s plan for mass rehabilitation of Bru refugees in the state, people has also voiced resentment over decision to resettle migrated Bru refugees. The Ranglong Youth Association also submitted a memorandum to North Tripura’s District Magistrate warning of a long-term agitation if the authorities persist with the “mass settlement of any outside community”.

Other local communities elsewhere in the district have also vowed to carry on demonstrating against the mass settlement of Brus.

In Detail

Bru or Reang people fled adjoining their native place in Mizoram 23 years ago following ethnic strife in that ethnic clashes in Mizoram forced 37,000 people of the Bru (or Reang) community to flee their homes to neighbouring Tripura, and took shelter in relief camps in North Tripura. An agreement was signed in January this year, in presence of Union Home Minister, to end the 23-year-old crisis.

The agreement among the Bru leaders and the governments of India, Tripura, and Mizoram, signed in New Delhi, gives the Bru the choice of living in either state. In several ways, the agreement has redefined the way in which internal displacement is treated in India, including by rehabilitating over 34,000 refugees, from 5,400 families, of the Reang community, locally called "Bru", in different places of Tripura, in North Tripura, where they had migrated in 1997 from Mizoram following ethnic conflict.

Bru Agreement

As per the Agreement, Bru community, currently living in temporary relief camps in Tripura will be settled in the State, if they want to stay on. The Bru who returned to Mizoram in the eight phases of repatriation since 2009, cannot, however, come back to Tripura.

To ascertain the numbers of those who will be settled, a fresh survey and physical verification of Bru families living in relief camps will be carried out. The Centre will implement a special development project for the resettled Bru community and that will be in addition to the Rs 600 crore fund announced for the process, including benefits for the migrants.

Each resettled family will get 0.03 acre of land for building a home, Rs 1.5 lakh as housing assistance, and Rs 4 lakh as a one-time cash benefit for sustenance. They will also receive a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000, and free rations for two years from the date of resettlement.

All cash assistance will be through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), and the state government will expedite the opening of bank accounts and the issuance of Aadhaar, permanent residence certificates, ST certificates, and voter identity cards to the beneficiaries.

Resettlement

In addition physical verification to identify beneficiaries will be carried out within 15 days of the signing of the deal. The land for resettlement will be identified within 60 days, and the land for allotment will be identified within 150 days.

The beneficiaries will get housing assistance, but the state government will build their homes and hand over possession. They will be moved to resettlement locations in four clusters, paving the way for the closure of the temporary camps within 180 days of the signing of the agreement. All dwelling houses will be constructed and payments completed within 270 days.

Present Condition of Bru Community

The Bru or Reang are a community indigenous to Northeast India, living mostly in Tripura, Mizoram, and Assam. In Tripura, they are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Over two decades ago, they were targeted by the ethnic social organisations of Mizoram who demanded that the Bru be excluded from electoral rolls in the state. In October 1997, following ethnic clashes, nearly 37,000 Bru fled Mizoram’s Mamit, Kolasib, and Lunglei districts to Tripura, where they were sheltered in relief camps. Since then, over 5,000 have returned to Mizoram in nine phases of repatriation, while 32,000 people from 5,400 families still live in six relief camps in North Tripura.

Under a relief package announced by the Centre, a daily ration has been provided to every family along with money for sustenance.

Most migrants sold a part of their ration and used the money to buy supplies, including medicines. They depended on the wild for vegetables, and some of them have been practising slash-and-burn (jhum) cultivation in the forests.

They live in makeshift bamboo thatched huts, without permanent power supply and safe drinking water, with no access to proper healthcare services or schools.

Conclusion

Since 2010, the Government of India has been making sustained efforts, with as many as nine attempts, to permanently rehabilitate these refugees but the issue remained unresolved. The attempts to repatriate the Bru community failed multiple times, so maybe this is for the best.

Successive central and state governments had thus far stressed only on peacefully repatriating the Bru, even though the enduring fear of ethnic violence remained a fundamental roadblock. The two other “durable solutions” for refugees and displaced persons suggested by the UN Refugee Agency, local integration or assimilation, and resettlement were never explored.

Historically, the Bru were always a part of Tripura. Tripura's Queens were Bru. It was in 1947 that the Bru went to Mizoram after they were displaced due to a hydro project. Thousands of their families were dislocated, they migrated to Mizoram but they always lived there as second class citizens.

Apart from their own Kaubru tongue, the Bru speak both Kokborok and Bangla, the two most widely spoken languages of the tribal and non-tribal communities of Tripura, and have an easy connection with the state. Their long stay in Tripura, albeit in exile and in terrible conditions, has also acquainted them very well with the state’s socio-political ecology.

Connecting the Article

Question for Prelims

In relation to the Bru agreement, consider the following statements:

1. It allowed the Bru community to settle in any part of Tripura.
2. It recognized the Bru community as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group in Tripura.

Which of the statements given above is/ are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Question for Mains

To resettle the Bru community, an agreement was signed recently. How this agreement will be beneficial for the community and what are the major challenges in its implementation ?