Photo Credit: Thatcher Hullerman Cook
11/25/2004

In a Bihari camp in Rangpur, an older woman talks about the destruction of her home and how she has tried to rebuild with materials available to her.

The Bihari have ties with Pakistan and Bangladesh, but both countries have refused to offer full protection and citizenship to these people. During the East Pakistan struggle for independence in the 1970s, the Biharis sided with West Pakistan However, following India's military intervention, which helped create Bangladesh, violence flared between the two groups. The Biharis were stripped of their property and thousands were jailed. For the past two decades some 300,000 Biharis have lived in 66 camps throughout Bangladesh where they suffer discrimination and poor conditions.