Rasheeda Bano’s first visit to India from Pakistan was when she was just four. The journey was via Sri Lanka, as she heard from her parents. The year was 1976 and her first trip to her homeland in the Kannur district of Kerala in southern India was with her parents.
Bano, later permanently moved to Kannur in 2008 with her six children and parents, and ever since is in a fight to secure Indian citizenship. Bano, her three children, and her mother live in Kannur on a long-term visa while her three children got citizenship in 2017. Hassan, who lived on a long-term visa, died this year.
Bano was born in Karachi, Pakistan to Fatima and Hassan of Kannur in 1972. Hassan ran a business in Karachi. He married off his only child Bano to his nephew Mohammad Maroof who had become part of his business. Maroof is also of Kerala origin. Young Maroof and his siblings were brought to Pakistan by his grandmother, also Bano’s grandmother, after they lost their mother. Bano took a ‘risky,’ decision when she was 36. She moved permanently to Kerala.
‘I was warned that it is risky,’ she, now 52, tells FII.
I was firm
Nothing stopped Bano as she had seen her mother always worried about her siblings in Kannur. ‘I wanted to come back because my mom’s roots were here. It was not always easy to get a visa for regular visits and I wanted to marry off my daughters to Malayalis. In Kannur, the married daughters mostly stay at their maternal house so I won’t miss them. I was my firm to return though many warned me that I was taking a huge risk citing that I would have to start from zero had we returned. But my faith in God is unchallengeable,’ she said.
Bano moved to Kerala with her husband, parents, and children- Afshan Maroof, Sadia Maroof, Qasim Maroof, Sumaira Maroof, Mariam Maroof, and Ismail Maroof – in August 2008. Her youngest child Ismail was six then and the eldest one Afshan was 16. Maroof didn’t stay in Kerala for long. He first went to the United Arab Emirates for a job and later to Pakistan because his sister was there. Four years after she moved to Kerala Bano began the fight for citizenship, and it is on. She had to start from scratch.
Bano’s long fight
Bano’s fight includes multiple trips to Delhi to the Pakistan High Commission office and once to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MH). She travelled scores of times to Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram to meet the authorities concerned and the offices of the Superintendent of Police (SP) and District Collectorate in Kannur.
Bano was deceived by a lawyer who took a hefty amount from her to initiate the procedures a week after they arrived from Pakistan. ‘I realised that I was duped later after being met with an emergency. I called the lawyer, but my attempts to contact him turned futile. His phone was switched off and the house was locked down. There were many people to misguide, I was oblivious about what to do. I was afraid any wrong move would put me in a spot,’ she recalled.
Finally, one day she went to the district collectorate citing the hardships the family had been going through. Hassan, healthy back then, accompanied his daughter. A staff at the collectorate guided her with the proceedings. The family got a stay order for three months from leaving the country and after that, Bano took the fight of her own in 2012.
‘I am in debt. We spent a lot of money travelling to Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram for our stay and other things. I might have spent lakhs for taking printouts only. We disposed of three sacks of old printouts recently. I do and teach tailoring and my relatives support me. I had to educate my kids and take care of my parent’s medical expenses apart from the household expenses. My daughters’ weddings were simple functions. I had told them this was all I could,’ she elaborated on her plight.
Maroof’s support is of little help because of the lower value of the Pakistani currency (compared to the Indian currency) when he sends money. The family enjoyed a financially well-to-do life in Karachi because Hassan’s business was well-established. Hassan took a while to get used to his life in Kerala. But he stood firmly by his daughter’s side and slowly got accustomed.
Initially, the family lived at a relative’s house in Kannur. Later, a relative bought them a home, at Kadirur near Thalassery in the district. The house is named Thanal in Malayalam meaning shelter. The family managed to get Aadhar cards with the help of the SP office for they didn’t have any documents to travel.
An exhausting fight
Her fight turned fruitful as her three children- Afshan, Sadia, and Qasim got Citizenship in 2017. However, it continues as Bano, her mother, and three children live on long-term visas. The status of Bano’s application is rather puzzling. For around the last four years, the ‘current status,’ shows that ‘your citizenship has been dispatched to the state government,’ but she has yet to receive it!
After a prolonged attempt, she managed to get a contact number at the MH. ‘At first, they told me that the certificate was dispatched. Then I asked for its proof. The proof is a letter that would be sent to the District Collector, the SP, and the person concerned. But none of us received the letter. When I checked again I was told that several mail got lost during the COVID period and the ‘dispatching letter,’ might have been missed like that. Then I asked even if the letter was missing where was the certificate,’ she said. Her question remains unanswered.
Following this, Bano sent a letter to the MH through the District Collector. In Fatima’s case, the renunciation certificate was missed from the state Home Department which delayed her citizenship till date.
78-year-old Fatima has dialysis thrice a week but is denied any benefit at a government hospital as they don’t have a ration card. The renunciation certificates (A reunification certificate is issued when a person surrenders the nationality of one country) of Bano, her three children (who got citizenship), and Fatima were issued together, but a seal was missing from her mother’s certificate. “That was sent back to the MH to affix the seal, but we never received it. I filed a query under the Right to Information Act and the state Home Department admitted it was missed. I wonder how such sensitive documents could be missed. The state then wrote to the MH to grant her (Fatima) citizenship on humanitarian grounds, but the MH has not responded,” Bano continued.
For her youngest son Ismail, the citizenship application is being processed.
A ray of hope for Bano
The Kerala High Court in July this year directed the Union government to grant Indian citizenship to Bano’s two daughters Sumaira Maroof, 21, and Mariam Maroof, 24. The court asked to give citizenship in 90 days. The Centre had rejected the citizenship plea of the sisters, citing the non-acceptance of no-objection certificates forwarded by the Pakistan High Commission and insisting on a renunciation certificate.
Bano, in her petition, contended that the Pakistani High Commission would issue a renunciation certificate only after they attain the age of 21, and in their cases, such certificates cannot be issued even after reaching this age, as they had already surrendered their Pakistani passports before turning 21.
Mariam’s husband is in the Gulf but is unable to live with him because she doesn’t have a passport. Their son is five years old and the father could visit the son only twice.
‘I have pressure from the in-laws of my daughters (to obtain citizenship) and it is increasing as the days pass by. What I shall tell them? I can’t blame them. They are all young, they should be together at this phase of their marriage. My five-year-old grandson frequently wishes to go to Qatar to meet his father and insists on having a birthday cake stuffed with a picture of a flight. He misses his father like hell,’ Bano said.
Sumaira’s eight-year-old son had a liver transplant when he was young. The child is autistic and his treatment continues. Sumaira needs citizenship if they have to take him treatment outside the country. Bano said, ‘We are told that better treatment is available outside the country. My greatest wish is to take the kid to Holy places to pray for him. We are stuck.’
The family, however, is hopeful that Sumaira and Mariam will get the citizenship as the HC directed. 60 days have passed since the court order and 30 days are left while Bano is still awaiting her citizenship certificate.
