Hindu communities' woes
While I was in Bangladesh a few weeks ago, I went to my village where I grew up. In our village, there were almost 50 60 Hindu families in 1971 and now there are only seven families left. More shocking is that these remaining families are now the poorest of all. Most of them once had agricultural land, were relatively affluent, but now landless.
What happened to these Hindu families? The majority of them left their beloved motherland and moved to India. A few families, who did not go to India, moved to Dhaka or nearby cities. I met a few of these families in Dhaka and found that almost all of them now live in rented apartments and have no ability to buy any apartment or house. Their condition is no better than those remaining Hindu families in the village.
Everybody mentioned three main reasons behind this situation. The first reason is the existence of the Vested Property Act, formally known as the Enemy Property Act. With the help of this single law the powerful people grabbed their land forcefully, with false paper; in some cases, the Hindus sold their land at a nominal price for fear of losing it anyway. The second reason is the discriminatory practice by the government and the private sector in case of job opportunities, education, bank loan and even the distribution of relief materials during natural disasters. The third reason is lack of security.
The condition of the Hindu communities will continue to deteriorate until they stand up against this injustice.
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