‘Untrustworthy and Unbelievable’ no separate queues were available for women. Elderly and pregnant women, along with lactating mothers, had to stand in queues for hours to get their documents verified. In one case, four infants lost their lives in the heat while the mothers were forced to stand in queues. A respondent, aged 68 years, described her difficulties in travelling time and again to get her name verified. Her son was a daily wage labourer who accompanied her and exhausted almost all his savings. In describing her plight, she mentioned how the government officials were unhelpful and they received no aid or assistance from the non-governmental organisations. Another respondent, aged 38, recalled that she had to bring her 93-year-old ailing father to her registration, to establish his linkage with her before the authorities. A pregnant 27-year-old respondent pointed to the lack of proper sanitation and drinking water facilities. On observation, it was seen that a hand pump was installed for drinking water, two temporary toilets were constructed for use by both men and women and, for shade, a tarpaulin covered area was demarcated without benches or chairs. The other respondents focused on similar issues and also raised the concern about the notices not being served on time and the rampant corruption in the entire system. In Barpeta, the families who were interviewed consisted of D Voters whose names were not included in the NRC, as upheld in the case of Azizul Haque v Union of India.'*7 The first respondent was a widow with two married daughters. She was an elderly woman who could not afford to get an advocate to defend her case before the FT and highlighted her hardships while trying to earn a livelihood. The names of all her brothers were enlisted in the NRC, barring her because of her inability to prove lineage with her late father. The second respondent was a daily wage labourer and her deceased husband’s name was enlisted as a D Voter, automatically rendering her sons the same. She had been fighting alone against the system to get the names of her sons regularised in the electoral rolls. The third respondent highlighted the rampant corruption prevalent in the electoral registration branches and the FTs. She was asked to furnish a sum of INR 15,000 to get her name enlisted on the electoral rolls, facilitating the inclusion of her name in the NRC. All the other respondents have also corroborated that there was corruption and presence of political pressure. The fourth respondent recalled how her neighbours were apprehensive of the fact that the family of the respondents would be taken to the detention centres which instilled fear among them. Another respondent showed us land records dating back to 1926 and rued the fact that despite having documents which date back to pre-independence times, their names were registered as D Voters. In conversation with a lady aged 87, it was known that her name was included in the 1951 NRC, yet the names of many of her family members were not included in the NRC. Overall, there was a significant lack of awareness around the citizenship rights among the people, which seems to have paved the way for exploitation by the bureaucracy. We asked the respondents about the reactions elicited from the wider society around them. One respondent informed us that the persons from his village used to visit his family and discuss the potential fate they faced in the detention centre. Some respondents stated that the neighbours were the one who spread rumours about them being illegal migrants and subsequently cut-off ties with them. In contrast, the survey in the Kharupetia town field revealed that the respondents had received immense support from their neighbourhood and community at large who 147 Azizul Haque v Union of India [2018] WP (C) No 3432 of 2018 (High Court of Gauhati). 255