ABSTRACT
Authoring the official History of Relief and Rehabilitation Programme of the Government of India, post-1947, U. Bhaskar Rao, observed:
This initial paragraph of the much quoted text, sets the tone for any discussion on the life and living conditions of the East Pakistani refugees in eastern India, who had come into those areas which formed part of the Indian dominion to escape varied forms of persecution in East Pakistan after the Partition of India. Though official estimates, built up through census enumeration and registrar procedures, put the tally of East Pakistan refugees in Assam at about four hundred thousand,2 it is now popularly admitted that these figures are contested and the actual number of refugees in Assam was much higher. South Assam, especially Cachar had to bear a major brunt of refugee rehabilitation, in view of its close cultural and religious affinity with the neighbouring areas of East Pakistan. However, in spite of a continuous stream of refugees coming into this area, there was very little initiative and innovation, among the representatives of the Indian state to ensure these refugees adequate
and hygenic rehabilitation. The result of such lackadaisical approach was the conversion of refugees and their camps into fertile grounds for disease and epidemics resulting in large-scale mortality. This paper, in light of the above assertion, seeks to argue two major points. In the first case, it seeks to establish connectivity between improper and inadequate rehabilitation measures and human health and mortality. In the second, it seeks to critique post colonial relief and rehabilitation policy of the Government of India between 1947 and 1954. These dates are not comprehensive points of closure but signposts, adopted for the convenience of research; the first being the Partition of India and the second being the year of the Third Refugee Conference of Cachar, which was held on 8 and 9 November 1954.
