Bihari Community: Living in Camps

The Biharis are a Urdu-speaking Muslim minority community living in 70 camps in 13 districts of Bangladesh. They migrated from several states of India including Bihar at the time of partition of India. Still prejudiced by many and excluded by the larger society for their role in the independence war of Bangladesh, the majority of the Biharis live in congested and overpopulated camps where the rooms have expanded vertically for lack of space. Three or more generations of a Bihari family live in one tiny room where they sleep, cook and keep their belongings. Now officially recognized as citizens of Bangladesh, they are still deprived of many of their basic rights.

This monograph presents findings of a study of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) on demographic and socio-economic conditions of the community, which is a valuable addition to the academic and public discourse on social exclusion of the Biharis in Bangladesh. (Seen in the back cover: the Geneva Camp in Dhaka, the largest of the Bihari camps in Bangladesh).