On Nov 16, 2016, during Indian parliament’s winter session, the then state minister for home, Kiren Rijiju had claimed that there are 20 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India and without stating any source he added that there is proof of many Bangladeshis entering India without valid papers.
For a long time, the 20 million number has been circulating in Indian social media and most of the rhetoric and arguments regarding the illegal Bangladeshi migrants usually lack reliable statistics.
However, since the state minister mentioned the number in parliament, Bharatiya Janta Party leaders and Indian politicians say the number without hesitancy giving it a certain validity.
But the source of such a number is still unclear and the migration data published during the last census shows that the number of Bangladeshi migrants fell compared to ten years ago.
This contradicts the current frenzy to search for illegal Bangladeshis in the name of making National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Economist Chinmay Tumbe the author of “India Moving: A history of Migration” said in an article that the number of migrants has fallen in India.
The census of 2011 mentions Bangladeshi born people in India to be 3.7 million, which is 1 million less than ten years ago.
Columnist for The Times of India and senior journalist Abheek Barman feels that since the economy of Bangladesh is rising faster than that of India, illegal immigration has come down to zero.
Commenting on those who had come earlier, Abheek, says: “Irrespective of race, religion and date of entry, they should be naturalized; many European countries have taken this path and this is the only logical solution.”
Since India does not have a deportation agreement with Bangladesh, there is no way to send back so many people in the legal way, he added.
Senior fellow of Indian think tank Observer Researcher Foundation (ORF), Joyeeta Bhattacharjee, said in an article: “Identifying some people as Bangladeshis and sending them back hastily will not bring any dividends.”
Asking for bi-lateral talks on the matter, she said: “Delhi cannot gain anything by intimidating Dhaka; if there are millions of illegal Bangladeshi workers in India then they send remittance through unlawful means which also results in revenue loss for Bangladesh government. Therefore, if both countries chalk out short term work visa system then they will benefit.”
A recent statistics also shows that the number of migrants has fallen in recent times and the 20 million number is unreliable and baseless because Indian surveys do not corroborate it.