2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) political phenomenon. Through our research, we aim to centre the experiences of women as they navigate the precarious liminal zone between citizenship and statelessness. This paper is structured into two parts. The first briefly examines the notion of citizenship and statelessness: how it is constructed and how it is gendered. We have attempted to understand how one is identified as a citizen, what a feminist conception of citizenship would look like and the kind of struggles women face in this process. The second part of the paper focuses on the way this phenomenon has unfolded in Assam. Through a historical analysis, we have sought to frame the issue in its proper context. We have scrutinised in detail the different legal hurdles that must be overcome in the journey to proving one’s citizenship in India, with a special focus on the NRC. We seek to explore the relationship between bureaucracy and statelessness in terms of how the former places significant hurdles around acquiring and practicing full citizenship. Finally, we have carried out empirical research in two prongs. First, we have analysed case law around adjudication on women’s citizenship. Second, we have interviewed both men and women who have undergone the citizenship identification process embodied in the NRC. Through our work, we aim to put forth a feminist analysis of the process of proving citizenship, and the structures that are actively contributing to statelessness with a special focus on Assam. II CITIZENSHIP: THE INSIDER, THE OUTSIDER Citizenship as a concept has recently emerged as the crux of social justice debate. Derived from the Latin ‘civis’, it is a concept that is entrenched in notions of territoriality, marking a delineation between the ‘entitled insider’ and ‘deprivileged outsider’.? The term has come to denote the status of an individual as a member of a state’s political community, whereby they can access the rights of political participation.!° The distinction between members and non-members divides the political community from within.!! It has been given the status of a human right, preserved in multiple international human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,'* and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.“ Citizenship speaks to the guarantee of specific rights, and added protections vested in all those who can claim membership.!> It provides the privilege of democratic participation in making decisions that affect political and social life. !® ? Julia Eckert, ‘Introduction: Subjects of Citizenship’ (2011) 15(3—-4) Citizenship Studies 309, 10 Ursula Vogel, “Is Citizenship Gender-Specific?’ in Michael Moran and Ursula Vogel (eds), The Frontiers of Citizenship (Palgrave Macmillan UK 1991) 58. IL 12 13 14 15 16 311. ibid. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res 217A (III), UN GAOR, 3rd sess, 183rd plen mtg, UN Doc A/810 (10 December 1948) art 15. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, opened for signature 18 December 1979, 1249 UNTS 13 (entered into force 3 September 1981) art 9 (‘CEDAW’). Convention on the Rights of the Child, opened for signature 20 November 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2 September 1990) art 7. Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990-1992 (Blackwell 1990). Richard Bellamy, Citizenship: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2008) 25. 238