Dying alive: vulnerability of tribal internally displaced persons in Assam, India

Pralip Kumar Narzary, Fakir Mohan University

The ethnic conflict between Santhals and Boro Tribe that erupted during 1996 and 1998 displaced about 5.17 lakh persons and took life of about 400 people. At the end of 2003, 1.28 lakh of them were still taking shelter in the makeshift relief camps. The humanitarian assistance provided was extremely paltry(inhumane) and there is hardly any income generating avenues around. Most of the internally displaced persons(IDPs) live in animal like condition with meager per-capita income of Rupees 367 (approximately 7$US) per month. Many of them survive by collecting firewood, whereas most of womenfolk sale country liquor or do odd jobs to generate additional income for the household. Multi-variate analysis shows that social networking helps IDPs to have slightly better economic condition. Due to extreme economic hardship and lack of basic infrastructure - denied of fundamental human rights, they are quite vulnerable to various types of exploitation, health hazard, hunger etc.