Mass evictions of people living in slums across cities, using force, allegations of harbouring ‘illegal migrants’ have acquired phenomenal pace in the past few months. Calling out certain demographics, like Muslims and those who speak in Bengali, as non-citizens and housing them in ‘holding centres’ has made the exercise acquire a menacing character. The Wire reports on people vital to building city infrastructure, living on the margins, now suddenly finding their citizenship challenged.Barpeta, Assam: Beneath flimsy tarpaulin tents on borrowed land near Hasila Beel, hundreds of families now struggle to survive – stripped of their homes, dignity and security. These families, many of whom have lived in the area for decades, were among the over 660 families – mostly Muslims of Bengali origin – whose homes were demolished by the district administration during a large-scale eviction drive in Assam’s Goalpara district on June 16.According to news agency PTI, the Supreme Court on Thursday (July 24) agreed to hear a plea accusing Assam officials of ignoring its orders during a demolition drive in Goalpara district. A bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran has issued a notice to the Assam chief secretary and others, asking them to respond within two weeks.The camps near Hasila Beel lack clean drinking water, electricity supply and sanitation. The monsoon rains only worsen their misery. Women, children and the elderly now huddle under at least four makeshift camps, unsure of what tomorrow holds.One of the four makeshift camps in Gobindapur village near Hasila Beel in Assam’s Goalpara district, where evicted families, mostly Bengali-origin Muslims, now live under tarpaulin sheets after their homes were demolished on June 16. Photo: Kazi Sharowar Hussain‘No other place to go’Seventy-five-year-old Abdul Aziz first came to Dakshin Hasila when he was 15. His home in Natun Basti was swallowed by the Brahmaputra in one of its many devastating erosions. His family resettled here and began cultivating ‘Boro’ rice in the fields surrounding their new home. “We had nowhere to go after losing our land to Brahmaputra. All of my relatives died in a cholera epidemic long ago,” he recalls. His family received a ration card in 1986. Later, they received a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). Many saw it as recognition of their legal status and citizenship, only to have it bulldozed by the very administration that granted it.Abdul Aziz sits inside his makeshift shelter and displays his decades-old documents including ration cards, and NRC records claiming his citizenship. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainNur Alam, 60, lived in the area for nearly five decades. In December 2023, he received a notice from the Balijana Revenue Circle, asking him to vacate the “wetland” within seven days but he refused to leave. “We had no other place to go. Where would I take my family?” he asks. Almost two years later, bulldozers razed his home. Now, he lives under a tarpaulin tent in a temporary camp beside a road. “Now we are living beside the road, under plastic sheets, without water, electricity or toilets,” he says.Nur Alam stands at the entrance of his makeshift tent. He lived in the area for nearly five decades before his home was bulldozed in the June 16 eviction drive. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainHarez Ali, another resident, settled in the area nearly 40 years ago. He produces receipts of land tax payments from 1984 (An officer later said that these were receipts of penalty tax for encroachment on government). “I have documents,” he says, holding up photocopies of his documents. Yet, that didn’t protect his home.Harez Ali (on the right) shows his documents, including a land tax receipt from 1984 as evidence of decades of residence. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainDays after the eviction, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the site. Speaking to the media, he recapitulated his government’s stand, claiming the evicted were “illegal encroachers destroying the environment.” He also said that these operations would continue as part of the government’s effort to protect wetlands and reserved forests. He claimed that the settlement had come up only in the last 12 to 15 years. However, many residents refuted this, insisting they have been living in the area for several decades.“We have been living here for decades. We have all the documents to prove our citizenship, including our father’s name in the NRC of 1951. My name is also in the latest NRC list,” says Abdul Aziz. “If we are Bangladeshi, why did the government give us houses, ration cards, and relief?” he asks.Another temporary camp along a road in Gobindapur village near Hasila Beel, Goalpara, where dozens of families displaced by the June 16 eviction have erected temporary shelters using plastic sheets and bamboo. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainResidents claimed that only a few families settled in the area within the last 10-15 years after losing their land to river erosion. Though several lost important documents in floods, most still possess voter ID cards as proof of identity. Shahnur Ali, a former GP member, says, “It is true that some people have settled here recently. The Brahmaputra river is only one km from here. Some of the victims of erosion settled here but they did not encroach on the land. The DC himself settled them in the area.”“There was no notice this time,” says another resident. “They just put up banners in different places on June 13 asking us to vacate within two days. Then they came with excavators.”Responding to a query from the CJI, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, representing the petitioners, said that several affected persons had also approached the Guwahati high court, with their plea focusing on rehabilitation. He argued that even encroachers are entitled to due process of law. “These are 667 poor families who have been living on that land for 60–70 years,” Hegde stated.Dewan Mofizur Rahman Raufy, one of the advocates representing a petition (Case No. WP(C)/3367/2025) at high court, said, “Six petitioners from the area had approached the high court. The hearing took place on the very day (June 16) the eviction was carried out. The case is still ongoing, with the next hearing expected soon.” He added, “We are hopeful that the evictees will receive rehabilitation.”‘Lost one of my academic years’The eviction drive, many residents say, was carried out in the middle of higher secondary examinations. Many students living in these camps lost their books and study materials. Seventeen-year-old Amina Khatun, a student in a government HS School says, “I lost my books due to the demolition. I could not sit for exams. I lost one of my academic years.”The area has two lower primary schools and two anganwadi centres. Residents claimed that the administration has demolished one of the anganwadis. “We want to study. But we’ve been driven away from our village,” says an 11-year-old girl. Despite the lack of electricity, school access or basic comforts, many displaced children try to continue their education in their tarpaulin shelters in Gobindapur, Goalpara, amid uncertainty. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainThere is no electricity in the camps, leaving children unable to study at night. “My daughter has not gone to school since our home was demolished,” says one mother. “The school is intact but it is far from here.”Despite uncertainties, the displaced children try to continue their education in their tarpaulin shelters.Surviving on kindness of NGOsSixty-year-old Rahima Khatun, a widow for decades, once survived by doing whatever daily work she could find – washing dishes in restaurants, harvesting crops, carrying loads. After the eviction, she lost not just her home but also the little security she had. With no income and nowhere to turn, she now waits each day under a tarpaulin sheet, hoping someone will come with food. Like Rahima, many others in the camp are surviving solely on the kindness of NGOs, students’ organisations and volunteer groups from different parts of the state.Evicted families carry sacks of relief materials under the blazing sun, returning to makeshift tarpaulin shelters in Gobindapur village. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainThere has been no official relief or rehabilitation effort from the government, no camps, no health services. The families now simply rely on the generosity of others – distant relatives and people from the neighbouring villages – who let them occupy pieces of land temporarily.However, Taslima Begum, an ASHA worker, who also lost her home in the eviction says that the conditions inside the makeshift tents are rapidly worsening. “People are falling sick in the heat. They are drinking unsafe water. Children are suffering from fever and diarrhea. Some have been taken to hospitals, while others remain untreated because their parents can’t afford the cost,” she says.A tube well, installed by volunteers and the primary source of drinking water for the evictees in Hasilapara, now stands submerged in rainwater. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainA woman cooks next to her makeshift shelter while caring for her baby at a temporary camp in Gobindapur near Hasila Beel, Goalpara. Photo: Kazi Sharowar Hussain‘Illegal’ brandingWhile the state insists the evictions are part of a broader mission to reclaim ecologically sensitive land, rights groups and activists argue that the drives disproportionately target the poor and landless – particularly the Muslims of Bengali origin. The branding of entire settlements as “illegal encroachers” not only overlooks their histories of displacement and documentation but also strips them of their humanity. “These people are not illegal,” says a resident. “Most of them are landless Muslims and victims of river erosion. And that’s why they’re so easily erased.”Jakir Hussain, a leader of the Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti (SMSS), who was served a warning by the Goalpara police instructing him not to stage any protest against the demolition drive, says, “People are living under extremely harsh conditions. Even a 60-year-old woman, Jaytun Nessa, died because she couldn’t bear the heat under the tarpaulin sheet. This is an inhuman act by the Himanta government in the name of saving the environment.”Activists and political workers argue that these systematic evictions – serve as a form of dehumanisation, veiled under the pretext of environmental restoration and development.A Congress delegation comprising nine MLAs, including Jakir Hussain Sikder and Nandita Das, visited the eviction site on June 17 but was denied entry by the police. Sikder says, “The government has carried out the eviction illegally, without providing any alternative shelter or basic facilities for the displaced families.”The Congress delegation was stopped by the police on June 17. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainNirankush Nath, a DYFI leader, says, “These massive eviction drives are not accidental or isolated – they are part of a deliberate agenda to seize land for powerful private corporations.In the process, ordinary people, especially poor peasants, are being violently uprooted.”“This is not just land grabbing; it’s a calculated assault that fuels communal and ethnic divisions to distract and divide. Nowhere is this toxic blend of corporate-communal nexus more shamelessly exposed than in today’s Assam under the BJP regime,” he adds.Not an isolated incidentThe eviction in Hasila Beel is not an isolated incident. Over the past few years, Assam under the BJP-led government has witnessed a sharp rise in eviction drives, particularly targeting areas inhabited by Bengali origin Muslims. From Dhalpur to Bilasipara and now several places in Goalpara, thousands have been displaced under the pretext of clearing government, reserve forest, wetlands or sometimes, in the name of development. The language of chief minister Sarma has further stoked communal tensions, with repeated references to “illegal Bangladeshi encroachers” in several of his X posts despite many evictees possessing land documents, ADHAAR, voter IDs and even inclusion in the NRC. In one of his X posts, Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the government has freed 1,19,548 bighas of land from encroachers to save Assam from “demographic invasion”. The eviction drive was conducted in Hasila beel area on June 16. Photo: Kazi Sharowar HussainThe question remains: how long can they survive like this? How many more lives will be pushed into silence and struggle? People of Hasila Beel continue to wait, not just for relief but also for recognition of their rights. Abdul Aziz, sitting among his scattered belongings under his tarpaulin tent, says, “We showed respect when our chief minister visited. He should respect us too. Instead, he has made us live like animals.”Meanwhile, Rupsan Ali, 40, another resident, expresses hope, saying, “We still believe in the country’s constitution and the judiciary. We are waiting for justice.”Kazi Sharowar Hussain (Kazi Neel) is a filmmaker, journalist and a poet from Barpeta, Assam. He currently heads Itamugur Community media, a media platform that amplifies the voices of the marginalised communities.