In two days' time it will be two years since the exchange of enclaves. In those two years, people of all ages in the former enclaves, buoyed by the joy of newly won freedom, have turned their lives around. Alongside claiming their basic rights, they are working hard to bring momentum to their lives and livelihoods.

For sixty-eight years, 50,000 people in 162 enclaves lived in an uncertain darkness. Though they lived on Indian or Bangladeshi soil, they had no country. Their only identity was a question mark in their minds.

On 31 July 2015 that uncertainty was erased and the enclaves ceased to exist. Thousands of men and women who had been denied the taste of independence in 1971 regained their existence and nationality. Since then a new struggle to rebuild has been under way.

In these two years, life in the former enclaves has gained new speed. People of every age, from children upwards, are now keen to take part in building the country as well as their own fortunes.

A small country, many people, limited resources: even accepting these limits, the new generation does not lack confidence. Seventeen schools have already been set up in the former enclave areas and are now full of students. Adult education and many efforts to build a better life are under way in household after household.

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.