No one wants to be named Ganga

Ganga Mondal detests her name. So much so that she has asked the class teacher to suggest an alternative. Her hatred for the name stems from the scars she bears from the river that has torn everything — except life — from the thousands living along the 157-km stretch on either side of Farakka barrage. “I don’t want to bear the name of a merciless river that gobbles away homes and livelihoods, leaving people in absolute ruin. Rivers are a source of sustenance. They are providers of life. But the Ganga has turned into a terror,” said the embittered Class IX student. Once a resident of the bustling Panchanandapur locality in Kaliachak II, she became a roadside refugee in 2003 when the ferocious Ganga cut away huge swathes of land, taking with it homes, schools, shops, temples and mosques. Ganga’s fate is still better than kids like Soma Mondal, Mahboob Alam, Sohail Sheikh and Rashu Ghosh who suffer from an existential crisis. They live on Khatiakhana char, a short boat-ride away from where Ganga lives. Yet, the gulf between their lives is so wide that bridging it appears impossible without compassion and political will. “The children of Khatiakhana are growing up in a state of complete chaos and uncertainty. They lack identity since neither West Bengal, nor Jharkhand, will issue birth certificates or ration cards. Those who have turned adult cannot step out in search of work for fear of being branded Bangladeshi immigrants. An entire generation is languishing in this flux,” said Md Habibur Rahman of Ganga Bhangan Pratirodh Action Nagarik Committee that operates two primary schools in the char with aid from CRY. While NGOs struggle to provide primary education at the island, administrators and politicians run shy of addressing the need for health care, education and other basic amenities. CPM district party secretary Jibon Maitra said the government could do little till the Centre amended the manner in which state boundaries are determined. “We have been writing letters for ages without response,” he said, flipping the fate of innocent lives on to the slippery political turf.

Students carry a blackboard, and a chair for mastermoshai, at Khatiakhana Char in Malda