On August 31, the updated final National Register of Citizens, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam, was released with the authority conducting the exercise shutting out the citizenship claims of over 19 lakh applicants who now face an uncertain future.
Many have asked what happens now after the government rendered these people stateless. Where will the government accommodate all the people who are not included in the list?
How will they be provided for are just a few questions being raised.
Now, the government is constructing detention centres in Assam to house these 'illegal'.
Here's a look at India’s largest detention centre, located at Matia in Goalpara district of Assam. The new detention centre at Matia will house around 3,000 detainees.
The detention centre is being built on land equivalent to about seven football fields. According to Reuters, the camp is intended for at least 3,000 detainees. It will also have a school, a hospital, a recreation area and quarters for security forces - as well as a high boundary wall and watchtowers. Photograph: Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters
Assam has six detention centres now and the government is planning to build 10 more. Funded by the central government, the detention centre comes at a cost of approximately Rs 450 million. Photograph: Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters
According to a report in The Quint, Assam's newest detention centre is likely to be ready by December 2019. Photograph: Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters
Some of the workers building the camp said they were not on the citizenship list. That means the workers could themselves end up in detention. Shefali Hajong, working on the site, from a nearby village, said she was not on the list and will join nearly two million people who need to prove they are Indian citizens by producing documents such as birth and land ownership certificates dating back decades. Photograph: Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters
