A glimmer of hope has emerged for around 150 Hindu migrant families residing in Ellenabad, Sirsa district of Haryana. These families, originally from Pakistan, have been awaiting Indian citizenship for over 30 years.
Their wait might finally be nearing its end with the upcoming meeting of the Empowered Committee constituted under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
The committee, scheduled to convene on May 20th, will decide on the citizenship applications of these families.
This development comes on the heels of the Union Government granting citizenship certificates to over 300 applicants under the CAA provisions earlier this week.
The families in question arrived in India between 1990 and 1998 on visitor visas, primarily from Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts of Pakistan.
While their visas were extended on multiple occasions, their passports expired in 2003, rendering them undocumented.
This situation has caused immense hardship for these families, who have essentially lived in limbo for decades.
However, the implementation of the CAA has rekindled their aspirations for citizenship.
"We are hopeful after the CAA came into effect. We will be reapplying online to secure citizenship at the earliest," said Surta Ram, a resident of Ellenabad.
The CAA offers a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, provided they entered India before December 31st, 2014.
While the Act has been a source of controversy, for these families in Ellenabad, it represents a potential solution to their long-standing predicament.
Lalit Jain, the state Director of Census Operations and Citizen Registration, who also chairs the Empowered Committee, confirmed the May 20th meeting to expedite the citizenship process.
He added that a majority of online applications received so far are from districts like Rohtak, Fatehabad, Sirsa, and Gurugram.
Despite the CAA's provisions, online registrations for citizenship among eligible migrants in Haryana have been slow. Additionally, the Congress party has consistently opposed the CAA, terming it discriminatory.
District-level committees have already been established to verify the applicants' documents.
If the Empowered Committee approves their applications, these families will finally be able to obtain official registration certificates.
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