Day 3 In Dhaka

Jan 14, 2012
Today I went to the Geneva camp and the CRC camp in Mohammadpur. These are 2 of the 116 camps where thousands of Urdu speaking people are stranded for last 40 years. My friend Hannah Sholder from the UC Berkeley was in Dhaka couple of years back doing her research on a Full Bright Scholarship on the stranded camp-sweling Urdu speaking community in Bangladesh. Hannah gave me her local contacts. One youngman, Khalid Hussain, secretary of the Association of the Young Generation of the Urdu Speaking Community took time out of his schedule and took me aournd in the camps and introduced me to some of the members in the community. The elders of this community migrated from many parts of Bihar, UP and Assam in 1947 in the hopes of living in Pakistan, the land for Muslims. In 1971 many members sided with W. Pakistan and after the war opted for repatriation to Pakistan rather than the new nation, Bangladesh. While waiting for repatriation, they were housed in the camps. Many never made it to Pakistan and now has been living in the camps for last 40 years.


A lady cooks on the street as there is no other room. Her family of 8 people live in a 10x12 room in the Geneva camp

A typical living quarter in the Geneva camp

Geneva camp in Mohammadpur is the largest camp in Bangladesh with 25,000 people living in an area of 235,000 sq. ft.  It was established in 1972 by the ICRC and now is a thriving neighborhood.
The second camp, CRC is a small one with 282 people living in a three story building. I was introduced as a friend of Hannah and was welcomed with smiles. It is amazing and hard to believe that the stranded Biharis and the Urdu community has been living in such conditions in camps for last 40 years. Little has been done to improve their situations.



She cooks, sleeps and eats on this tiny room with 6 memebrs of her family



Her roof is at the verge of collapsing. Yet she continues to live in this quarter with 4 other members of her family

I intend to interview the elders of the community who migrated to this land in 1947.