Introduction of the stateless in the region.19 Yet, conditions leading to statelessness are apparent in all countries with instances of ‘statelessness or virtual statelessness’ continuing in the case of Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka, Indians in Myanmar, Urdu-speaking minorities (often referred to as ‘Biharis’) of Bangladesh, and Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh.20 There also exists a large group of people in Nepal without citizenship papers,21 which does not render them stateless per se but given the paramount importance of the citizenship certificate to establish one’s identity and access almost any and every public service, it makes them virtually stateless. Recent developments in India are more troubling. With the NRC complete in Assam,22 the central government is now planning a country-wide exercise to be followed by the application of the CAA. With plans already afoot to set up mammoth detention centres in Assam to house those who did not make it to the NRC, and the intention behind the NRC extension to the entire country being a thinly veiled attempt to declare all Muslims without the required papers as foreigners,23 the possibility An Overview and Analysis of Global Statistics’, 2018, https://files.institutesi.org/ ISI_statistics_analysis_2018.pdf. 19 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR: Statistical Yearbook 2016 (Geneva: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2017), accessed February 25, 2020, https://www.unhcr.org/en-lk/statistics/ country/5a8ee0387/unhcr-statistical-yearbook-2016-16th-edition.html 20 Partha S. Ghosh, Migrants, Refugees, and the Stateless in South Asia (New Delhi: SAGE, 2016). Ghosh also includes the enclave people in Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves but this issue has been resolved since his book was published. 21 A 2013 study put that number to be 4.6 million, or 23 per cent of the total national population. Sabin Shrestha and Subin Mulmi, Acquisition of Citizenship Certificate in Nepal: Estimation and Projection (Kathmandu: Forum for Women, Law and Development, 2015). 22 The NRC, however, did not turn out the way the BJP wanted it to in terms of identifying Bangladeshi Muslims as non-citizens. Of the 1.9 million Assam residents left out, half were Hindus and many others belonging to tribal groups indigenous to the state. See Kaushik Deka, ‘Why the nationwide NRC proposed by Amit Shah is being criticised,’ India Today, November 22, 2019, https://www. indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/why-the-nationwide-nrc-proposed-byamit-shah-is-being-criticised-1621483-2019-11-22. 23 Home Minister Amit Shah is on record stating: ‘All the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christians…will get citizenship,…We want to walk up to them and give them citizenship. They wouldn’t be asked for any documents.’ See Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, ‘Who is linking Citizenship Act to NRC? Here are five times Amit Shah did so,’ Scroll.in, December 20, 2019, https://scroll.in/article/947436/whois-linking-citizenship-act-to-nrc-here-are-five-times-amit-shah-did-so. xxxi