Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in India employment and housing, as well as the right to identity, travel documents and administrative assistance. India has also not signed the 1961 Convention on Reduction of Statelessness, that seeks to prevent statelessness and reduce it over time. This has enabled Indian citizenship laws to be rife with exclusionary and arbitrary provisions that produce statelessness such as the provision for citizenship which necessitates that parents of even those born in India not be ‘illegal migrants’. Groups such as Chakma and Hajong in Arunachal Pradesh and large numbers of Bengali-speaking persons in Assam, face statelessness as a result. India has been following selective practices with different refugee and displaced groups that do not accord with international norms. Irrespective of the official stand, the living conditions reported by all refugee groups we studied were abysmal with poor security, lack of basic amenities, and limited employment opportunities. Access to education and healthcare were poor, particularly for those living in camps. Across groups, employment was limited to petty, informal, daily-wage labour. The lack of a national refugee law means rights and services, besides being below par, vary across groups, with different groups treated differently and arbitrarily, and refugee protection delivered in an ad hoc manner. There is a marked contrast between persecuted non-Muslims, who are viewed favourably, and Muslims, mainly Rohingyas from Myanmar and Muslims from Bangladesh, who are viewed with suspicion and treated with hostility. This arbitrariness and discrimination, mostly directed at Muslim groups, is being institutionalised under the current Hindumajoritarian dispensation, with citizenship laws effectively being used for political ends. The 1986 amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 moved the basis of citizenship from jus sui to jus sanguinis system, thus making citizenship contingent on descent in place of birth. In 2003, further amendments created the category of ‘illegal migrants’, completely excluding those deemed such from any route to citizenship, including of their children born in India. The amendment also laid the grounds for preparing National Register of Citizens, first rolled out in Assam. The completion of the NRC updation in Assam, the result of a 10-year-long administrative screening process, involving 52,000 state employees and at a cost 61