Copyright © 2011. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. 116 Statelessness and citizenship over the years. However, since the country gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, the state has failed to acknowledge them as citizens on a broad political and administrative level. This protracted disconnect between law and policy has made the group’s status uncertain, effectively stateless. For nearly four decades, the unwillingness of either government, Bangladeshi or Pakistani, to formally recognize this community as citizens has rendered an estimated 160 000–500 000 people vulnerable to extreme poverty and without equal access to education, health services and livelihoods. Time, however, as well as the accretion of case law, has confirmed this group’s citizenship. Since the most recent 2008 High Court decision ordering government agencies to register individuals to vote and to issue national identification cards, perceptions have shifted to the point where few can credibly deny that most of the Urdu-speakers (also known as Biharis and stranded Pakistanis) are Bangladeshi citizens. Time has healed some scars from the violent war for independence, during which both Bengalis and Urdu-speakers committed atrocities against each other. Time has also allowed a new generation of Urdu-speakers to grow up with limited ties to Pakistan and a natural affinity for Bangladesh. A whole generation of young people in Bangladesh has no personal memory of the liberation war. Yet progress for this community may ultimately arise not by ignoring the role of Pakistan nor by repressing memories but by collectively acknowledging the victims on all sides. Some Urdu-speakers appear to have taken advantage of such progress by pursuing higher education and obtaining jobs. Others report that discrimination continues, particularly regarding access to public schools, government jobs and passports. Individuals are most affected who report addresses in slum-like settlements in urban areas where around half of the community has lived since the early 1970s. Poverty, resulting in part from years of effective statelessness, has also created barriers to opportunities and upward mobility. Community leaders acknowledge the progress that has been made yet vacillate between accepting that change will not occur overnight and feeling frustrated that vindication of their clearly established rights continues to take so long. Based on the momentum for citizenship rights generated by recent court decisions, more can be done to integrate this minority into the country’s social fabric and economic development. Bangladesh is a poor country with massive challenges, but the Urdu-speaking minority has seen progress. There is the potential for genuine success in ending statelessness and ensuring the right to a nationality. Statelessness Citizenship116 : A Comparative Study on the Benefits of Nationality, edited by Brad K. Blitz, and Maureen Lynch, M2482 - BLITZand PRINT.indd 21/12/2010 11:56 Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bham/detail.action?docID=655534. Created from bham on 2023-11-30 09:57:20.