Ready To Take Off - In Northeast India

There’s a new consumption vibrancy in the North-east, say marketers by Chitra Narayanan

By Chitra Narayanan


RETAIL RUSH: In the youthful N-E marketplace, aspirational brands are doing particularly well (BW Pic By Bivash Banerjee)

 Far off Aizawl in Mizoram — with a population of just 220,000 — looks an unlikely location for a national tyre company to set up an exclusive branded showroom, with all the bells, frills and whistles. After all how many cars, bikes, buses and trucks would be careening about here?

And, yet, JK Tyre wheeled in its characteristic yellow hued Steel Wheels outlet. “After Mizoram, we are going to spread the concept to Manipur and Meghalaya,” says Vikram Malhotra, vice-president, marketing and sales, at JK Tyre and Industries. The plan is to set up six more Steel Wheels outlets in the region by next year. “We’re expecting a 20 per cent growth from the region. Last year, it was 15 per cent,” he says.

"Earlier, it was a mindset problem of marketers; and not about potential" Vikram Malhotra, Vice-president, sales & marketing, JK Tyre & Industries

JK Tyre is riding on the back of an auto boom in the North-east. “We are expecting the North-east region to generate more demand for personal transportation,” says Y.S. Guleria, vice-president, sales and marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India (HMSI).

Even as the industry grew 18 per cent in FY12, HMSI grew 40 per cent in the North-east, he says. The company now has 24 outlets across Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur, and offers its entire portfolio of 12 automatic scooters as well as big bikes such as CB 1000R and Fireblade here. HMSI also hopes that a big chunk of its newly launched Dream Yuga bike sales (300,000 units to be rolled out across India) will come from the North-east.

From FMCG to apparel retailers, fertiliser firms and IT companies, a swathe of businesses is waking up to the potential of the hitherto ignored region. Mobile operators have spent huge sums in building presence here in the past four years. And, as happens, once somebody makes inroads, it sets off a chain reaction. 

The intimidating ‘chicken’s neck’ — that narrow strip of land that traverses between Nepal and Bangladesh — which stopped marketers in their tracks seems more negotiable now. Indeed, better ties with Bangladesh after the PM’s visit last year may make it possible to cut across the neighbouring nation to sojourn into the remote states. At a recent press meet, BSNL chairman and managing director R.K. Upadhyay talked about setting up connectivity between Agartala and Dhaka via Akhaura in Bangladesh and between Sabroom in south Tripura and Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong. Opening of the trade route to Myanmar is another trigger.

Getting Ready

A lot of companies are looking at the North-east map, scouting for locations. Direct seller Amway, which is going to open a brand experience centre in Guwahati by the end of this year, has already revamped its office there. Since home delivery constitutes 35 per cent of North-east sales for it, Amway has set up warehouses in Jorhat in Upper Assam, Imphal in Manipur, and one each in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. “The North-east market contributes a significant pie of the turnover,” says William S. Pinckney, MD & CEO, Amway India. “Assam alone has seen 35 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2012,” he says. 

Pinckney says Amway products reach 98 towns in Assam, including remote locations such as Tihu and Pathsala in Lower Assam and Amguri and Dicom in Upper Assam. “We are intensifying our focus on training distributors, productivity, expansion and home delivery.”

Even ‘Big Blue’ IBM is betting big on the region. It opened a branch office in Guwahati in 2011, and is sewing up partnerships with IIT-Guwahati. “We see Guwahati as our gateway to north-eastern India, where we are experiencing a strong demand in the banking, government and real estate segments,” says Vivek Malhotra, vice-president, general business, north and east region, IBM India. He adds that there is strong demand for open source technologies, and that IBM is tying up with educational institutes to promote this further.  

 

Agribusiness company Tata Chem scents opportunity in the government’s push for agriculture in the region. R. Mukudan, managing director, Tata Chem, says, “It is a water surplus region and as India goes through higher and higher levels of water crisis, the North-east will become a space of increased productivity in all types of cash crops. There will be higher demand for input machinery.” Assam will be the starting point for the company’s expansion in the region. 

 

Future Group’s expansion plan for the region includes two more Big Bazaar stores in Jorhat and Silchar in two months, and one in Agartala in five months, says Manish Agarwal, business head-East, Big Bazaar. This will be in addition to the existing stores at Guwahati, Darjeeling and Gangtok. “The north-eastern consumer is highly fashion-conscious and loves to spend on herself,” says Agarwal, adding that cosmetics, western wear and food are doing especially well. 

 

Cafe Coffee Day, which has 13 cafes across Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, is looking to take this number to 20 by the end of this fiscal. 

 

Way Above The National Average

In demand curve, a weekly column by indicus analytics on consumer trends and markets, the research firm points out how the North-east is steadily moving into the spotlight. The markets here may be small (only Guwahati and Agartala are among India’s top 100 markets) but the improving communication and transportation links and changing economic structure are spurring growth. Incomes are certainly rising. Six of the eight north-eastern states have average incomes higher than the national average. The per capita income in Sikkim, for instance, was Rs 47,655 in 2010-11 (up from Rs 26,693 in 2004-05), and Rs 40,957 in Nagaland, while the national figure was Rs 35,993. Now this may not be near Delhi’s Rs 1,08,876, but it is better than Karnataka’s Rs 39,301. The north-eastern region contributed just 2.66 per cent to India’s GDP.   “Overall, they have got a good thing going. Security had been the biggest concern and had an impact on markets. But now with more peace, you are going to see an immediate return,” says Laveesh Bhandari, director, Indicus Analytics.

No wonder B. ‘Nary’ Narayanaswamy, executive director, Ipsos Research, says the region, which has been at the tipping point of a consumer boom for long, looks poised for take off. He calls the region India’s Africa — a rising market, ripe for a private sector invasion. A major trigger has been persistent government investment — a central ministry for the region, premier institutes, and telecom initiatives, including a WiMax rollout that has sped up broadband connectivity. Also, with more north-easterners working in other parts of India, remittances, and aspirations, are going up. “Opening up of Myanmar is a big energiser too. There is a new consumption vibrancy,” says Narayanaswamy.

 

A sure-fire indicator, he says, is when hotels start opening. Sure enough, the Taj is checking into Guwahati with a Vivanta property, even as its budget chain Ginger is already present in Agartala and Guwahati. Prabhat Pani, CEO, Roots Corporation (Ginger Hotels), says that after Ginger opened in Agartala, conferences have started being held in the city more. “In a way, we have facilitated something significant,” he says.

 

Rival chain Sarovar has seven 50-key hotels in the pipeline in the region to add to its existing Gangtok property. Mansoor Adil, senior executive vice-president of Sarovar Hotels and Resorts, is betting on both tourism (which is seeing a rising graph) as well as Indo-Myanmar  trade opening up to fuel demand for rooms.

 

"Assam alone has seen 35 per cent growth the first quarter of 2012" William S. Pinckney, MD & CEO, Amway India

It’s All In The Mind

Given that the terrain remains difficult and logistical bottlenecks continue to pose a challenge, what has caused this marketing invasion? Of course, there were brands such as Ponds that were already present, but not many. 

 

The biggest factor, says JK Tyre’s Malhotra, a man brought up in the region, is the mindset change among marketers. “Earlier marketers would look at the population and market size data and say, oh, just 4 per cent of India, and ignore the region,” he says. “It was sheer inactivity; and not about potential. North-easterners have a fairly high per capita income,”  he says, pointing to the high-value cars on Guwahati’s roads.  

 

Certainly. The average income in six north- eastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura — is higher than the national average.

 

Amway’s Pinckney points to the last survey on the direct selling industry in India done by PHD Chamber of Commerce, which shows that total sales revenue in the North-east and eastern markets has gone up in 2010-11 — 48 per cent and 37 per cent respectively — albeit from relatively lower bases. He feels Internet penetration and online retail has led to the boom and higher productivity for distributors. Agrees JK Tyre’s Malhotra: “More than the roads and flights, it is Internet that has been the leverage.”

 

Another factor is a slowdown in some of the other markets, which has forced marketers to search for new geographies. For instance, car sales have slumped elsewhere in the country (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers data for this quarter shows the growth rate for passenger cars has dipped to 5 per cent.) 

 

Shillong resident Sanjib Bhuyan, an educational consultant, says that north-easterners themselves have become more open in their attitudes. Entrepreneurship is increasing. Locals are setting up sidewalk cafes, boutique hotels and cottage industries, even a wine brewery, he says, compared to the past when only government jobs were sought. It is a youthful marketplace where aspirational brands are doing particularly well, points out Agarwal. 

 

Of course, not everyone is rushing in. Even as many companies are rolling towards the North-east, many are waiting and watching. Vikram Bakshi, MD and joint venture partner at McDonald’s (North and East), says that only after he makes inroads into the East will he venture into the North-east. But the pioneers have made their move. Will they strike gold there?

 

chitra(dot)narayanan(at)abp(dot)in

Rare Four-Legged Chicken Takes Birth in Northeast India

Rare Four-Legged Chicken Takes Birth in Northeast India

India has for the first time seen the birth of a chicken with polymelia, according to a recent report. Chicks are generally seen with two limbs, this one has arrived with an extra set but.

The rare birth was seen five months back in the Northeast village of Kitam. And the same is not something good, but is rather a defect that, according to experts is curable with a surgery. It has been told that the genetic deformity takes place while developmental process of embryo is on.

It is even being said that other animals can get this defect as well. “If it a major vital organ, it needs a major surgery otherwise limps and all we can take out with minor surgery and they can survive for their normal life”, affirmed Arjun Adhikari, local veterinary expert.

However, the chicken is living almost a normal life, its two extra legs appearing suspending from behind but need to be corrected. Since, no particular reason is there behind the realization of deformity and worshipping such an animal or just taking its life would not be anything new if seen happening in India.

It is now to be seen if a surgery is carried out on the chick or some other picture comes the way.

Mizoram Court Faces Anti-Corruption Heat

Aizawl, Sep 3 : A large number of people are expected to gather in front of Vanapa Hall here today to witness a hearing on the controversial bail pleas of the three accused in the Serkhan-Bagha road multi-crore scam at the special court nearby.

According to Prism, 16 organisations and six political parties have confirmed their participation at the 'Anti Corruption Rally that will start from 1100 hours. "We don't have any intention to create any law and order problem or disturbance to the court's proceedings.

We will just stand and wait for the court's verdict on their bail pleas," said Vanlalruata, president of the corruption watchdog and organiser of the rally.

The special court under Prevention of Corruption Act had granted interim bails on medical ground to PWD engineer-in-chief Lianchungnunga, assistant-cum-accountant B Lalthanpuia and retired engineer-in-chief C Liansanga on August 17, the day they were arrested by the Anti Corruption Bureau in the graft case.

The trio, according to Prism president, "suddenly fell ill" after they were arrested and obtained backdated medical certificates from three government doctors who stated that they were critically ill and needed "bed rest."

Alleging that the medical certificates were fake, Prism had filed FIRs against the three doctors a few days back, demanding appropriate action taken against them under sections 193 and 197 of IPC.

"The accused did not possess medical certificates at the time of their bail applications. However, they managed to get one from the doctors backdated on August 16," he said.

Moreover, two of the accused, the E-in-C and the assistant, were found attending offices the days after despite that they needed "bed rest." The doctors too have been granted anticipatory bails, the day after FIRs were lodged against them.

"The point is they were not actually ill. Therefore, it they are granted bail on medical ground, we will jump to the conclusion that they are released based on fake medical certificates," Prism president said.

He also strongly felt that the court questions the veracity of the medical certificates. The non suspension of the engineer-in-chief and the assistant has drawn criticisms from Prism, the co-complainant Hmarphei Zirlai Pawl (students union of northern region), and like-minded organisations like Sosa (Society for Social Action).

"Top officials, charged with corruption case, have great chances of tampering the investigation. In the present case, the officials should have been suspended at the beginning of the investigation," said retired IAS officer and Soso president S L Sailova.

The two officials, along with the retired PWD engineer-in-chief, were implicated in the alleged swindling crores of rupees in the construction of Serkhan (Mizoram)-Bagha (Assam) road, against which students' union of the area filed an FIR in 2009.

The state PWD received Rs 600.50 lakh from the 12th Finance Commission, and additional Rs 75 lakh from the North Eastern Council and Rs 100.86 lakh from the state plan fund for resurfacing works on the 75-km Serkhan (Mizoram)-Bagha (Assam) road.

After inspection, the students' union found that only 12 kilometres of the road were resurfaced despite the PWD's claims that 100 percent of the works were done.

The PWD later claimed that the fund was diverted for other "more important" projects, which however were rubbished by Prism.

"In an RTI information, the PWD had claimed to have spent the entire fund for completion of the works. The diversion claim that came later was just a lame excuse," Vanlalruata said.

Women's Group in Northeast India Gets Global Funding

By Shalini Kathuria Narang

The Global Fund for Women, an international organization committed to defending women's rights globally, has awarded a first grant of $12,000 to the North East Network, which works in India's  seven northeastern states.

The GFW funding will help the organization to expand a home-based weaving livelihood project running for several years with 90 tribal Chizami women in Nagaland. Through training on skills enhancement, costing, production planning, quality control, and group management, NEN aims to increase the earnings for women, professionalize weavers in a democratic system of working together, and increase the weavers' awareness of their social and economic rights.

Two women began the North East Network in 1995 after participating in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing . Besides New Delhi , the NEN has offices in India's conflict-ridden states of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

"We aim to bring gendered understanding of human rights violations in the region in the context of conflict, livelihood, and/or health," said Monisha Behal, chairperson, NEN. "One of our activities is to use the (United Nations') Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women … to influence the State machinery to fulfill its obligations to women. In Meghalaya, we work with the state enforcement authorities on issues of gender and perspectives change especially on violence against women. Its success has influenced NEN Assam, started this year, to do the same."

In Nagaland, she continued, "NEN has addressed ecological conservation through wildlife education. Through the GFW, it is marketing finished traditional Naga weaves in India. NEN has also strengthened biodiversity and conservation measures by helping gauge the value of local plants and herbs and reviving grains like millets in farms."

In Assam too, Behal said, "the cooperation between women's and youth groups, village councils and state agencies is visible. We have also trained several organizations on the Right to Information Act."

By participating in international conventions, including UN meetings regarding Security Resolution 1325, NEN works to highlight the human rights issues facing the women living in the conflict zones of northeast India. It was the first organization in the northeast to create a map of support services available to women in distress.

The group also promotes State accountability by encouraging citizens to use the Right to Information Act, especially regarding land issues, ration allowances and appropriate wage labour.

The group has built partnerships between women's groups and state agencies, including police and medical personnel. It also focuses on building a multi-sector, gender-sensitive approach to violence against women, especially Meghalaya. A community in Meghalaya has donated land for NEN to build a resource centre.

Tiger Reserve Faces Opposition From Kuki Groups

Ginger farmers will lose livelihood, warns Kuki group

Nagaon, Sep 3 : The Kuki National Assembly, an association of Kukis, today asked the Karbi Anglong autonomous council not to go forward with the proposed tiger reserve spread over 1,650 square km area in eastern and central Karbi Anglong, as it might disrupt the livelihood of 50,000 people.

The meeting took place near Karbi Anglong district headquarters Diphu.

“Most of the areas which the forest department wants to include in the tiger reserve and for eco-tourism projects is nothing but the agriculture belt of Kukis living in the foothills of Singhason hill. If the tiger reserve is set up there, at least 50,000 poor Kuki people will have to leave their agricultural work, which is the main source of their livelihood,” said KNA general secretary Tongthang Touthang.

The organisation today issued a press release, which stated that 80 per cent of the reserve area is used by farmers for ginger cultivation and the “killing project” might push these people to starvation.

The proposed reserve area falls under two wildlife sanctuaries and seven reserve forests. The area is home to three communities — Kuki, Hrengma and Karbi.

According to a forest office record, at least 95 per cent of the Khondamon reserve forest area of 450 square km is used by Kukis for ginger cultivation and the forest has been chalked out as the core area of the tiger reserve.

The plan of the tiger reserve, which would become the biggest reserve in India, was proposed by the state forest department to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

A meeting of the autonomous council, NTCA representatives and forest minister Rakibul Hussain, on the issue will be held in Diphu soon.

A source in the Karbi Anglong forest department said people living in the buffer areas would not be asked to leave but nobody would be permitted to carry on work in the core area, once the reserve is announced.

“Actually, the tiger reserve is being opposed by people as they feel their livelihood will be lost. The reserve and eco-tourism project will be done in a way which will definitely involve people living in the buffer areas,” the source said.

Fake Currency Racket Active in Northeast India

Guwahati, Sep 3 : Counterfeit currencies sourced from beyond the country’s borders have emerged as the latest threat to India’s economy, a dangerous trend that involves a network spread across Assam and some other parts of the Northeast.

Police and intelligence agencies are concerned over the increased seizure of fake banknotes in recent times, and suspect it to be part of a bigger game plan that is likely to involve foreign players based in neighbouring countries.

Intelligence operatives refer to past precedents as well as incidents in history that prove the use of counterfeit currencies to hurt the economy of a country or region. They point fingers at some South Asian countries where such designs are implemented through highly advanced printing machines, and are subsequently passed on to their partners in India.

Apart from economic implications, which usually are felt over a long period, counterfeit notes of high dominations are favoured by traders in illegal arms and narcotics. Both incidentally have been a bane for the people of the Northeast.

It is believed that consignments of higher denomination notes are still crossing over the porous borders into Assam and some other parts of the Northeast. At times criminals carrying out this crime against the country have also pointed in this direction.

Bankers and businessmen in different parts of the state are also reporting the widespread circulation of counterfeit currency. It has led to some neighbouring countries such as Bhutan to handle Indian currency of Rs 500 with great trepidation. Similar instances have been reported by visitors to Nepal.

A senior banker, who did not wish to be named said that some fake notes can be easily spotted. But more recently, new ones have shown marked improvements and at times are difficult to identify by the lay person. There are some reports of bank personnel being fooled by the quality of a counterfeit currency, which again hints that those are being printed on high quality paper in top of the line presses.

Dissecting the Bodo-Muslim Clashes and Attacks on Northeast People

By Nandita Haksar

The electronic media beamed images of thou-sands of people from the North-East climbing on to trains at Majestic Railway Station in Bangalore heading home to Guwahati. This panic was caused by anonymous SMSs warning that the Muslims would attack them after the month of Ramzan. On the first day 6500 young men and women from the North-East booked tickets for Guwahati but soon the figure reached 30,000.

There were reports that similar reactions were happening in Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and there were also reports of violence in Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur and then Mumbai.

None of the news made any sense and more we listened to the TV shows the less we under-stood. In one interview Mary Kom mentioned it had all to do with land but the anchor did not ask her what she meant. Instead they asked her how she managed to balance her role as a mother with her ambitions in boxing. On the day Mary Kom was on national TV, four people from her tribe were beaten in Bangalore by five assailants. They were rescued by their Muslim landlord who caught the miscreants and dragged them to the police station. There they discovered three of them were Tamil Hindus and two were Muslims (I could not find out from where).

The two communities who were at the heart of this conflict were the Bodos and the migrants from Bangladesh. We saw them in refugee camps and in distress but their grievances, their demands and their voices were not heard.

The Bodos

The Bodos are the single largest and oldest plains tribe of Assam. In ancient Sanskrit texts they have been called Mleccha. The word was derogatory. For instance, in the Mahabharat there is mention of Bhagadatta, the King of Pragjyotish (in present-day Assam), going to the Rajasuya ceremony of Yuddhishthira, the eldest brother of the celebrated Pandavas. This is how the Mahabharat describes the encounter of Baghdatta with the Aryan world: “Maharatha King Bhagadatta, the brave ruler of Pragjyotish and the strong ruler of the Mlechhs, came with yavanas. He brought a tribute of thoroughbred horses, as swift as the wind, but was barred and stood at the gate.” (Rajasuya Parva, The Mahabharata)

Only recently the World Bodo Historical Society has called for a ban on the Vaishnav religious social reformers, Sankardev and Madhavdev, because in their books they instigated people to wage war against the Mleccha (or Mech) and Buddhists.

“Mleccha” is a derogatory term in Sanskrit for an untouchable. There is a history of centuries of humiliation on these once powerful tribes who had Kingdoms right down to the time of the Indian Independence. One of these, Rajbanshi-Koch Kingdom of Cooch Behar was a dynasty with ancient origins. This Kingdom was established in the 16th century and remained a Princely State till 1950 when it was incorporated into West Bengal as a district.

The Rajbanshi had a Kshatriya movement in an attempt to claim high-caste status but they have been recognised as one of the Scheduled Castes under the Indian Constitution. Some Koch-Rajbanshi youth have taken to arms and are fighting for a separate State. This is called the Kamatapur movement. Kamatapur was their ancient kingdom and the rulers of Cooch Behar called themselves Kamateshwar. It was this movement that was blamed for the first attack on a Bangladesh Muslim village on July 6, 2012 which led to the subsequent violence between the Bodos and Bangladeshi migrants. At least that is what Susil Kumar Shinde, our new Home Minister, told Parliament on August 8. He said that the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) is behind the July 6 firing at Musalmanpara in Kokrajhar district.

However, Biswajit Ray, the Advisor of the All Koch-Rajbanshi Students Union, held a press meet at Bongaigaon and condemned the Home Minister’s statement saying there was no evidence to prove such allegations and the CBI should investigate into the incident.

The Bodo people (the Koch, Dimasa, Rabha, Chutiya, Kachari, Tiwa) have been fighting for their cultural identity and especially the official recognition of their language since the 1950s. It was only after they took to armed resistance in the 1990s that the government took their demand seriously and now it is a language recognised and taught in the schools and colleges in Assam; also it was included in the Eighth Schedule.

There is a long history of the struggle of the Bodo people around three issues: alienation of their land and natural resources; greater political self-determination; and preservation of their culture and language. In a way the Bodo agitation can be traced to 1967 when the Plains Tribes Council of Assam was formed.

The Bodos have won the right to have an autonomous area where they can have a high degree of autonomy and self-determination. But they say that the laws giving them autonomy are not effective enough to ensure their right to self-governance. That is why the Bodos are now fighting for a separate Bodoland State and have demanded that Assam be divided 50/50. The Bodo armed group, called the National Bodoland Democratic Front, has started peace talks with the Centre but a group against the peace talks has been accused of the recent violence against the Bangladeshi migrants.

The violence has left nearly a hundred people dead from both communities and thousands are now living in refugee camps.

The Bodos, like many tribal and non-tribal communities in the North-East, feel threatened by the growing numbers of migrants from Bangladesh. The Assamese leaders have pointed out that after Kashmir the highest percentage of Muslims is in Assam. However, the relationship between the Hindu and Muslim and tribal communities have remained cordial. It is only the influx of the Bangladeshi migrants that has caused the tension.

Bodo leaders point out that the conflict is over land, political representation and cultural rights. They point to the fact that no Bodo has ever objected to the Bodo language being taught by Ismail Hussain, a migrant from Bangladesh. He is even the Head of the Department of Bodo Language at Guwahati University’s Kokrajhar campus within the troubled Bodoland Territorial Council area, the scene of violence between the Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The Census and The Migrants

There is a long history of people from erstwhile East Bengal coming into what is now the North-East region of India. It began during the British times when peasants were affected by the land settlement policy of the colonial rulers. Lakhs of poor peasants, who were exploited by the zamindars, left their villages and settled in the lands which are a part of the North-East.

Then during the 1971 War of Liberation in Bangladesh many poor people took shelter in Assam and other North-Eastern States. It was during 1971 that the demography of Tripura changed with the local tribal communities becoming an insignificant minority. The Bangla-desh Government recognised this fact when it recently awarded the former Rani of Tripuri Kingdom and acknowledged her help during those days when lakhs of refugees poured across our borders. She had opened her palace gates and given shelter and succour to thousands of them. The mother of the present Chief Minister of Meghalaya too had given shelter to Bangladeshi refugees and was also awarded by the Government of Bangladesh. In fact the Assam movement has accepted that those people who came across to India in 1971 should be recognised as Indian citizens. The controversy is over the continuous influx of the people from Bangladesh. One estimate puts the number of Bangladeshi immigrants at 40 lakhs while others deny their very existence.

The core of controversy as far as the Bangladesh influx is concerned centres around the census figures. There is a serious question of reliability of the census figures. Many social scientists have raised questions about the Indian state’s institutional capacity to design empirically informed policies in the absence of reliable census data.

One reliable estimate states that the number of Muslims of Bangladeshi origin in Assam is 16 lakhs in an estimated total of 30 to 40 lakh immigrants, the remaining 24 lakhs or 60 per cent being from the Hindi belt or Nepal. (Walter Fernandes; 2011)

There is no controversy over the fact that these migrants have contributed substantially to the economy of the various North-Eastern States by their diligence and skills. They have cleared large parts and the land they have cultivated is the most productive. They have brought with them many skills and lived by the dint of their hard work.

The Bangladeshi migrants have been targets of extreme violence; the worst case was the Nellie massacre in which, according to some estimates, 5000 men, women and children were butchered. It is said the Tiwas were responsible; others blame the RSS.

The fact is that Bangladeshi migrants are easy and vulnerable targets. None of the political parties offered effective protection to them even while using them as vote-banks.

It was in the aftermath of that massacre that the Muslims started organising themselves into armed groups. The first was the formation of the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA). There are 23 Islamic armed groups in Assam and the North-East.

The Muslim Response

During the recent violence, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) has accused the Assam United Democratic Front (now the All India Democratic Front) of communalising the issue by appealing to Muslims to take up cudgels on behalf of the Bangladeshi migrants who are Muslims. The charismatic leader of the party is Badruddin Ajmal al Qasmi, popularly known as the Perfume Baron, because he has assets worth Rs 200 crores made in the agar oil and perfume business.

Ajmal won from the Dhubri constituency and is a member of the Lok Sabha since 2009; his party won 18 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Ajmal has called for the abolition of the Bodoland Territorial Council and he has support from Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

However, the 25 lakh inidigenous Muslims of Assam (as they call themselves) have formed their own organisation, called the Sadou Asom Goria Moria Deshi Jatiya Parishad (SAGMDJP); they equally blame the Hindu, Muslim and Christian fundamentalist forces for trying to wedge differences among different indigenous communities during the BTAD conflict. The SAGMDJP has demanded the arrest of Ajmal, alleging that he took the initiative of giving the Bodo-Muslim conflict a communal colour.

The Virtual World

According to the Central Government, there are more than 300 websites on which pictures, photographs and videos were posted showing Muslims being killed by some people alleged to be Bodos. In fact these videos and photographs were morphed and taken from the recent violence against Myanmar Muslims living in the Rakhine (Arakan) State.

The Muslims living in the Rakhine State bordering the Chittagong State of Bangladesh are called Rohingyas. The Rohingyas came when the King of Arakan Kingdom returned from exile in Bengal after 25 years and brought with him the Rohingyas.The majority of the Arakan population are Buddhists. The Arakans have been fighting for greater autonomy and federalism within Myanmar and some have taken to armed resistance.

It is believed there were some two million Rohingyas in 1978 when the Myanmar Army made them a special target of their brutalities; 250,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh and became refugees. The Myanmar Army destroyed their mosques and denied their legal and constitutional rights; and at one point even declared them as foreigners.

They Rohingyas were again targeted by the Myanmar Army in 1990 forcing thousands to once again to take shelter in Bangladesh. They too have organised themselves into armed groups and are trying to defend their rights. They have more recently come under attack by the Arakanese organisations and are subjected to torture and humiliation. Many have taken shelter in parts of North-East India.

The Arakan organisations have a similar position as the Bodos saying that they do not object to those Rohingyas who came earlier but a continuous inflow would make the Arakans a minority. The Myanmar Government has ordered an inquiry into the recent violence which has left scores of people dead and thousands displaced.

These videos and pictures were passed on through the mobile phones, MMS messages and through social networking sites such as the Facebook and Twitter. These false videos were designed to outrage the Muslims and incite them to violence.

There were some reactions. The first was in Mumbai when the Raza Academy decided to organise a protest at the Azad Maidan against the killings of Muslims in Assam and Myanmar. They were given permission. The Raza Academy or the Madinat-ul-Ilm (house of knowledge) was founded by Maulana Ahmad Raza who was originally from Bihar and Rizwan Khan a scrap dealer. The organisation took the help of other Sunni Muslim organisations and that rally turned violent with the mob torching vehicles and pelting stones. Two people were killed and 14 injured. Subsequently 23 have been arrested.

Migrants from the North-East

There are thousands of migrant workers from all parts of the North-East working in Banglalore, Chennai, Pune, Goa and Mumbai. They started getting SMSs warning them of an imminent attack on them after Ramzan.

There are many North-East people living in behind Johnson Nagar in Bangalore. Several of them were told by their Muslim landlords to leave. However, quite a few landlords told them not to leave but to move in with them. There were Muslim families who gave Iftar parties to the North-East people and assured them no harm would be done to them. In fact they were all invited for Eid.

But there were serious threats and attacks; isolated incidents but enough to make the anonymous threats seem real. A Tibetan was stabbed in Mysore; a Tangkhul Naga boy’s leg was broken in an attack; a Meitei was attacked; and many were threatened by strangers, in one incident there were people with swords. We still have not documented the extent of this violence against the North-East people. In Hyderabad it was the Assamese who were first threatened and at least in one security agency more than 600 of the 1000 security guards fled leaving the agency in deep difficutly. Many restaurants in Bangalore had to close down because of the exodus.

The question still remains as to why so many North-East people were attacked in Bangalore and why the exodus was so great there. The BJP blamed the Congress for singling out Karnataka and insisted that no incident had occurred. In Parliament Sushma Swaraj made a passionate appeal to the people of the North-East to treat all parts of India as their home. But no one visited those who lay in hospital even though the RSS workers were working to provide water and succour at the Bangalore railway station to those waiting to get their trains back home.

It still remains a mystery as to how so many people from the North East got these SMSs and how panic was created among a people known for their stoic courage. Why were the trains so readily arranged but no effective way was found to assuage the anxiety of the migrant workers from the North-East?

The TV channel anchors made appeals to the North-East people living in these cities to preserve the idea of India. But the channels did not bother to try and enlighten anyone about the real problems of land, displacement and development in the North-East.

The media did not bother to focus on the fears of ordinary Muslims who themselves were caught in the midst of this crisis. The Muslim community reacted with humanity. Many of the landlords took their tenants into their own homes; some called the North-East people for an Iftar party and invited them for Eid. A Muslim youth gave a moving message and put it on YouTube.

The Core Problem

In 1950-51, the per capita income of the people of Assam was 10 per cent higher than the national average. Forty years later, in 1990, it had fallen 20 per cent below the rest of India. One of the reasons is the low agricultural productivity; and the other is the lack of industrial growth. There are 5686 sick units in the State. Although the official figures say that between 1947-2000 only 3.9 lakh acres has been taken for development projects, it has been calculated that in fact 14 lakh acres2 has been taken displacing nearly five lakh people, that is, as many people have got displaced during the recent violence in the Bodo areas.

The tribal and Scheduled Caste people have borne the brunt of the effects of conflicts, land alienation, rise of fundamentalism and, most of all, the bankruptcy of the political parties across the spectrum.

The Aftermath

The Government of India has announced that the bulk of the SMS messages came from Pakistan. They have blamed Pakistan for creating panic. They say that people carrying Indian passports but Pakistani hearts have created this situation in their 43-page report on how the social networking sites were used for this insidious purpose.

The Hindutva group has gained by the demonisation of Muslims and many of the North-East people, especially from the Hinduised communities (which include many of the Bodos) and also those belonging to Christian fundamentalist groups could have fallen prey to the anti-Muslim propaganda by the Hindu Right.

Muslims were confused by all this propaganda and did not have information about the North-East. The Muslims showed extreme restraint; so whoever tried to incite violence failed to do so and the real world realities won over the virtual world—at least this time.

The electronic media, as usual, played a negative role: they did not try to inform the viewers the facts; Hindi channels sided with the Hindutva and the corporate world of NDTV and CNN/IBN made meaningless appeals to the North-East people not to panic. There was no mention of the restraint of the Muslims or highlight their gestures of solidarity to the North-East people. No one bothered to call anyone from the Bodo community; their favourite “Northeasterners” were people with “safe” views such as the former CM from Arunachal Pradesh.

Now the government will be engaged in Pakistan-bashing and soon the people of the North-East will be forgotten; not that anyone tried to understand their grievances even when they said their hearts went out to our “North-East citizens”. The North East citizens were too polite to say that yes they were citizens but second-class citizens driven from their homes to work as migrant workers in hotels, restaurants, beauty parlours, showrooms, call centres and goodness knows where else.

As for the immigrants from Bangladesh, they have been pushed into the embrace of the militant Islamic groups or the pan-Islamic parties who have no vision of a plural society. The other political parties, Left, Right, Centre, have already shown their bankruptcy of politics as far as evolving a vision for India of the future. The militant groups in the North-East and the people of the North-East have the task of evolving a society and polity which will have to accommodate the immigrants. The best thing that has happened, as far the peoples of the North-East are concerned, is that they have united and felt a deep solidarity for each other. Even though they may not have heard of many communities or their neighbouring tribes they came together to face the problem. And now an identity of the “Northeasterners” has been formed. The other people also learnt of the worth of the North-East people when restaurants closed in Bangalore, security agencies in Hyderabad were left without their security guards and people realised that the migrant workers are here to stay: in Goa, in Assam, everywhere. The only question is: on what terms and conditions?

Footnotes

1. The Bodo tribes include Rabha, Koch, Mech and many others. However, the Bodos are now a distinct tribe of the greater Bodo family. 2. Walter Fernandes and Gita Bharali, Uprooted for Whose Benefit: Development-Induced Displacement in Assam 1947-2000, Guwahati: North-Eastern Social Research Centre, 2011.

The author is a human rights lawyer and writer.

India's Womb Services

Our 'rent a womb' child from an Indian baby farm: British couple paying £20,000 for a desperately poor single mother to have their child

• Housewife Octavia Orchard describes the agreement as 'a business transaction'
• The Indian woman will live in a house with other surrogates, has children of her own, but no husband
• 'Her function is to sustain the foetus we have created,' says Mrs Orchard
• Of the £20,000, the Indian woman will earn between £3,000 - £6,000
• Around 2,000 births to surrogates took place last year

By Helen Roberts and Frances Hardy

Strictly business: Octavia and Dominic Orchard have paid for an Indian woman to be their surrogate

A couple tell today how they are expecting a child by a surrogate mother from an Indian ‘baby factory’.
Octavia and Dominic Orchard travelled to the Hyderabad clinic to get around a UK ban on commercial surrogacy. Their baby – due at the end of the year – will be theirs biologically while being born to an impoverished Indian ‘renting out’ her womb.
Mrs Orchard, a middle-class Oxfordshire housewife, admitted the £20,000 deal sounded ‘cold and clinical’ but insisted: ‘This is a business transaction.’
Describing the surrogate mother as ‘just a vessel’, the 34-year-old former estate agent added: ‘There is no altruism involved on the surrogate’s part: she is being paid to have our baby’.
At A clinic in Hyderabad, southern India, a surrogate mother is carrying Octavia and Dominic Orchard’s second child. The couple, who are as English as their bucolic-sounding name, know only the sparest of details about the woman who is pregnant with their baby.
They know she is 31 and has children of her own. They know her name, and that for reasons not explained — perhaps she has been widowed or deserted — she has no husband.
For the duration of her pregnancy she will live with other surrogates, away from her home and family, in a primitive dormitory within the clinic. It goes without saying that she is desperately poor.
Other than that, their surrogate’s life is a mystery to Octavia and Dominic. They chose not to become acquainted with the woman carrying the baby created from Octavia’s egg and Dominic’s sperm.
‘Our baby has no biological connection to the surrogate,’ says Octavia.
‘Her womb is just the receptacle in which it is being carried. Perhaps it sounds cold and rather clinical, but this is a business transaction.
‘There is no altruism involved on the surrogate’s part: she is being paid to have our baby. It’s a contractual arrangement.

 

‘Her function is to sustain the foetus we have created. Her blood is pumping around its body and she is feeding it through her placenta, but she is just a vessel. The baby she gives birth to on our behalf will carry none of her genes and bear no physical resemblance to her.
‘He or she will have white skin and, in all probability, red hair like my husband.
‘Of course I want her to do her best to have a successful pregnancy, and I’ll be very upset — quite devastated, in fact — if it doesn’t go full-term. But we do not want to get emotionally involved with our surrogate’s story. I’m not interested in her background. I don’t want to be part of her life.
‘She speaks a different language. She lives in a world culturally, economically and socially so remote from ours that the distance between us is unbridgeable.

Happy family: The Orchards are looking forward to giving their son Orlando another sibling

Happy memories: The Orchards pictured on their wedding day - they probably wouldn't have predicted the story that was to follow

‘You could also say this is part of my defence mechanism: I don’t want to become more emotionally involved than I already am because the pain will only be intensified if it all goes wrong.’
Some will find it disquieting that the miracle of birth is being reduced to a clinical commercial transaction by a growing number of British couples.
India’s burgeoning surrogacy industry — there are about 1,000 clinics providing surrogates for ‘fertility tourists’ — has been compared to a baby factory in which children are made-to-order for affluent couples who often use donated eggs and sperm to create their baby, and an Indian donor to carry it, choosing everything from their baby’s eye colour to its height.

'I hope my surrogate does something wonderful with the payment'
Mrs Orchard 

The Orchards have not been told how much their surrogate will earn from the £20,000 cost of the treatment — clinics are loath to specify sums — but estimates range from £3,000 to £6,000.
Many will struggle to understand Octavia’s lack of curiosity about the woman who is now 27 weeks pregnant with her child, but she is content knowing that the unspecified sum her surrogate will receive for her services will be life-transforming.
‘I hope my surrogate will do something wonderful with the payment,’ says Octavia.
‘She could educate her children with it; even buy a small house. It makes me feel good that we could help that happen.’
Octavia and Dominic are among a growing number of Britons using Indian clinics to circumvent UK laws that make commercial surrogacy illegal.

'Vessels': The Indian surrogate mothers at an Indian 'baby factory'

Around 2,000 births to surrogates took place in India last year, and Britain supplies the largest number of clients — estimates suggest as many as half are from the UK. The fact that just 100 surrogate births were recorded in Britain last year puts the scale of the Indian operation into perspective.
While some of the couples who attend the Indian clinics are homosexual and use sperm or egg donors, many, like Octavia and Dominic, are driven by infertility to put all their hopes into these clinics in teeming, impoverished cities like Hyderabad.
However, while the vast majority of these British couples choose to remain anonymous, the Orchards have decided to speak out about their own experiences with an Indian surrogate to encourage other British couples to consider the practice.

After 16 weeks of pregnancy, Octavia's amniotic sack failed to fill after her waters broke, and the baby died in the womb 

Octavia, 34, who had a comfortable middle-class upbringing in Oxfordshire, and Dominic, 35, a successful financial management consultant, have been married for six years and have a three-year-old son, Orlando, who was conceived naturally.
‘Orlando brought us such joy. I’ve loved every second of motherhood,’ says Octavia, who now works part-time in her recruitment job so she can spend more time with her son.
The Orchards knew they wanted more than one child, and were delighted when Octavia became pregnant 18 months after their son’s birth.
But after 16 weeks, Octavia’s waters broke prematurely, with catastrophic results: the amniotic sack failed to fill again and the baby died in the womb. She then had to endure an operation to remove the foetus.
‘I felt not only bereft, but completely worthless,’ she recalls. ‘I felt I’d let Dominic down. I couldn’t save our baby, I’d failed as a woman. I’m usually buoyant and positive, but I reached a very low ebb.’
The Orchards tried again for a baby. More sorrow ensued. Last January, Octavia’s obstetrician discovered that the remains of the placenta from her previous pregnancy were still in her uterus. A further operation to remove them followed.

All change: The art of conceiving has been taken to a new level now with the Indian baby-making factory

Then last October a fertility expert diagnosed Asherman’s Syndrome: the scars from Octavia’s successive operations had irreparably damaged her uterus, which had sealed up. She could no longer become pregnant.
‘I cried and cried,’ she says. ‘My confidence deserted me and though friends and family tried to tell me I had a perfect family already, I wouldn’t be consoled. I desperately wanted a sibling for Orlando and another baby for Dominic and myself.’
It was then they considered surrogacy. ‘As I could produce healthy eggs, I just needed a uterus in which our baby could grow,’ she explains. She and Dominic would provide the embryo and their surrogate would incubate it: it seemed simple.
So Dominic researched their options via the internet. He started in the UK — but was worried as the law does not recognise surrogacy as a binding agreement on either side.
‘Even when the baby is genetically related to both intended parents, and not to the surrogate — as ours would have been — there is very little we could do to make our position 100 per cent water-tight,’ she explains.
‘We’d heard stories of British surrogates refusing to hand over babies. We did not want to risk the heartbreak of that.’
Similar rules applied in Australia, while in the U.S. the cost was prohibitively expensive, at around £40,000.
They researched South Africa, and there, too, the law was obscure. But India, it seemed, had different and unequivocal rules. ‘The surrogate is paid. She does a job. You don’t have to become friends with her,’ says Octavia. ‘She carries the baby and hands it over. It’s very clear-cut.’
They chose a clinic in Hyderabad because it was cheaper than rival organisations, and because it also offered a lawyer to negotiate the convoluted bureaucracy involved in securing the baby’s British passport.
Soon after signing up, a box of medication to boost Octavia’s egg production arrived at their home, and in March — Orlando was left with his maternal grandmother — they flew to India for treatment.
Octavia knew what to expect from the subcontinent. Although she spent most of her childhood in Oxfordshire — she attended Samantha Cameron’s alma mater, St Helen & St Katharine School, Abingdon — she lived briefly in India when her father, a pilot, worked there. Dominic, too, had visited on business. Without this knowledge, they admit they would have been alarmed by the dizzying mix of abject squalor and wealth they encountered.
‘If we hadn’t been prepared for what we’d find, we would have been worried,’ concedes Octavia. ‘The clinic was basic and compact, but clean. It was three or four storeys high and the surrogates live on the upper storeys.

Tender time: Octavia and Dominic Orchard, pictured at the birth of their son Orlando

Growing up fast: The Orchards at Orlando's six-month Christening

Three set to be four: The Orchards always wanted a sibling for Orlando - and now their dreams are coming true

‘We did not want to see their quarters: by Indian standards they would have been comfortable; by ours, they would not be considered remotely homely. But we knew our surrogate would be treated well and would be given food and nutritional supplements to help the foetus develop.’
Many believe such arrangements are exploitative, and question whether it is morally right to use uneducated, impoverished women to fulfil wealthy couples’ dreams of parenthood. But Octavia insists the arrangement is mutually beneficial. For her, the quid pro quo is the financial recompense — huge by the standards of impoverished Indians —_ the surrogate will have received.
Octavia and her surrogate were treated within the clinic, but in separate areas. Around ten British couples a year currently use its facilities.
There are 90 surrogates on its books, and it has produced 218 successful deliveries in the past four years.
Octavia’s eggs were harvested and fertilised with her husband’s sperm, before being implanted in the surrogate’s womb, where one embryo is now successfully developing.
Other fertilised embryos produced by the treatment are being stored by the clinic and the Orchards may use them for a third child in the future.
Octavia and Dominic were flying home when the operation to transplant the embryo took place.
They said they weren’t even tempted to glimpse the woman who would transform their lives by carrying their second child.
Now they are back in Hong Kong, where Dominic works. They hope to return to the UK soon — to live in Wimbledon where Octavia worked at an estate agent, or their native Oxford — to raise their two children.

Money talks: Wealthy Westerners are turning to surrogate mothers, and importantly eggs from beautiful Europeans

Meanwhile, all they can do is put their faith and trust in the expertise of the clinic, and fervently hope for a successful outcome to their venture. They are sent videos, photographs of their baby’s scans and details of its development.
They do not know its sex. Gender-testing is illegal in India because so many female foetuses are illicitly aborted. As the pregnancy progresses, they feel a little more relieved. But there is no euphoria: they are too wary to celebrate yet.
‘When we found out our surrogate was pregnant we couldn’t quite believe it, but as every stage is passed — the 12-week scan; the 20-week scan — we feel a little more relieved and the knot of tension in our shoulders starts to ease,’ says Octavia.
‘We thank God for our success so far, but we’re not jubilant yet. I’m itching to get the baby’s nursery organised, but I daren’t. This whole thing feels a little like an out-of-body experience. I do think about the baby but I try not to be consumed by it. To an extent I shut off.’
Orlando has been told he is to be a big brother, and is excited by the prospect. ‘He knows babies come from mummies’ tummies, but we haven’t told him any more yet,’ says Octavia. ‘At this stage he just needs to know he’s loved.
‘Eventually he’ll know mummy’s tummy was not working properly so we borrowed another lady’s tummy. My parents are writing a little book for him, setting it all out in simple language.’

Is it right? The baby-making factory in India gives a whole new meaning to the words 'surrogate mum'

When their baby is born in November, Octavia and Dominic will fly to Hyderabad. ‘We will not be at the birth. It’s a private thing as far as I’m concerned,’ she says.
‘I’m assuming that once the baby has popped out and been bathed, he or she will be handed to us. I’m sure the surrogate will see the baby, but she won’t breastfeed it or cuddle it.
‘We may briefly see our surrogate, too, and I will thank her. I’m certain she will have formed a bond with the baby — no woman who has carried a baby for nine months could fail to do so — but I do not anticipate there will be any problems handing it over. I’ve no worries. She certainly won’t want to extend her own family.
‘I know that we will treat our new baby exactly as we have Orlando. It will be born in a different country and carried in a different body, but it will be no less special, no less of a miracle. It will just have come to us via a very different route.’