Woman in Assam becomes first to get India citizenship after two years in detention camp

A woman in southern Assam’s Barak Valley has become the first to get Indian citizenship after spending two years in a detention camp for people declared non-citizens by Foreigners’ Tribunals, a quasi-judicial body that settles nationality disputes.

The Bangladesh-born Dipali Das, 60, was granted a certificate of naturalisation on Friday (March 6, 2026) for fulfilling the conditions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019. The certificate has been signed by Biswajit Pegu, the Director of Census Operations.

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Dharmananda Deb, a Silchar-based lawyer, told The Hindu that Ms. Das was born in Dippur village in Bangladesh’s Sylhet district on December 3, 1966. She married Abhimanya Das in January 1987, a little more than a year after she and her husband fled religious persecution to enter India.

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