State of Statelessness in Bangladesh Untouchability The persistence of ‘untouchability’ in Bangladesh affects Dalits in almost every aspect of their private and public lives due to which the majority lack access to education, health care and other basic amenities, as well as decent employment, property, land or political office. They are also often denied access to public places such as hotels, restaurants, hairdressers, temples and markets on account of their identity. After a long struggle by Dalit and human rights organisations, the Law Commission of Bangladesh drafted the 2015 AntiDiscrimination Bill and submitted it to the Ministry of Law. However, the government has been slow to respond and after three years they returned it to the National Human Rights Commission for revisions in 2018. In April 2019, NHRC resubmitted a revised version to the Ministry but has yet to receive a response. Land and Housing: Dalits on the Margins In 2016, two young Dalit men from a family of tea labourers in Maulavibzar district of Bangladesh were selected for the position of police constables. During verification of their citizenship, however, the investigator reported that because they had no permanent residence they were not eligible for a government job and so were disqualified from the final list. It was a frustrating experience for the duo since they were deprived of the opportunity of public employment, despite being citizens of Bangladesh. Their treatment illustrates how Dalits, while not formally stateless, can still experience many of the same challenges due to discrimination. Tea labourers in Bangladesh mainly live at the mercy of the tea companies that employ them. Everything—their employment, education, health care, housing—is taken care of by the companies and the state plays virtually no role. As the largest community in Bangladesh without land titles, they are especially dependent on their employers and are not able to access services such as bank loans. Dalits experience similar challenges of invisibility and exclusion in urban areas, where they are frequently responsible for sweeping roads, maintaining drainage and other difficult, poorly paid work regarded as lowly or unclean. Pushed to the margins of the cities, 21