Assam is witnessing violent protests over fears that changes proposed by the Modi government in the citizenship law will grant Indian citizenship to illegal migrants from Bangladesh. But in the state's official detention centres where thousands of suspected illegal migrants are holed up, depression and despair are rising by the day.
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00:00I don't know what to do with myself.
00:08I don't know what to do with myself.
00:15I don't know what to do with myself.
00:30I don't know what to do with myself.
00:35I don't know what to do with myself.
00:51I am very sad.
00:53I have to eat breakfast.
00:55I have to eat breakfast.
00:57I have to eat breakfast.
00:59I have to eat breakfast.
01:01I have to eat breakfast.
01:03I closed the doors of the bus.
01:09Then in the afternoon, I sat on the bus.
01:15In the afternoon, I sat on the bus.
01:20Then I entered the house by the mountain.
01:29I have been living here for four days now.
01:31I have been living here for four days now.
02:29They didn't tell me what my fault was and why I should go.
02:32They didn't give me any answers.
02:34They threatened me.
02:35They told me to wear my clothes and come with them.
02:37They kept us in the office.
02:39Then they wrote a statement.
02:41They wrote it themselves.
02:43That I am Isha, I have come from Bangladesh.
02:46My name is Kismat.
02:47My father's name is Mukhtar Ali.
02:50They wrote it themselves.
02:52They wrote a statement and asked for my signature.
02:55I won't sign it.
02:57I didn't sign it.
02:59Then they threatened me.
03:02Forcibly.
03:04They forced me to sign it.
03:12The water was dirty.
03:14I couldn't sleep at night.
03:16There was a small space.
03:18It was about 1.5-2 feet.
03:20The convicts had huge beds.
03:25Detainees who are inside detention,
03:28they do not have the right to parole.
03:30The jail manual is not applied on them.
03:33You don't have the right to minimum wage.
03:36Generally, you are given wage work.
03:39Even if you are convicted of murder,
03:43you will be given wage work.
03:56They will ask,
03:57what is the age of your father, 1966?
03:59When did he get married?
04:00When did he die?
04:01If you say that my father died 10 years ago,
04:04he might have died 15 years ago also.
04:06Then they will say,
04:07you didn't give a correct statement,
04:10so your evidence is not reliable.
04:25Why should everyone be treated equally?
04:33You see, even our constitution
04:36says that everyone should be treated equally.
04:42Everyone should be considered equally in the eye of law.
04:46It doesn't say that justice should be confined only to citizenship.
04:52That is there in the very beginning of the constitution.
04:56And I think the people at that time
04:59were more humane in outlook.