Ten facts about Bangladesh Minorities: On the brink of extinction

Listing out the sad state of minorities in Bangladesh.

  1. The number of religious minorities including Hindus is declining quickly and dangerously in Bangladesh : from 19.80 per cent in 1971 to 9.00 per cent in 2014.
  2. The Bangladesh Government and political parties in general are not committed to restoring the original ethos and spirit of the Liberation War of 1971 and the Bangladesh Constitution of 1972.
  3. The Enemy Properties Act of 1969 is still in force in the name of vested Property Act to capture Hindu properties in a culpable manner.
  4. The restoration of Ramna Kalibari and Ma Anandamoyi Ashram is still pending. There are no special provisions and Acts to protect the worship places of minorities in Bangladesh against a hostile majority.
  5. The Debottar land of Sree Sree Dhakeswari National Temple been grabbed and reduced from 6.75 acre (aprx) to 2.75 acres.
  6. Demographic changes are ongoing in the Hindu-Buddhist dominated districts particularly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
  7. There are no special laws to try deliberate communal atrocities by the majority against the minorities. The cases relating to persecution and oppression hitherto inflicted upon the minorities have not come to trial so far.
  8. There is no budget allocation for the religious minorities in the National Budget right from 1972 in spite of earning huge tax revenue from the minorities.
  9. There is no ministry or department to oversee the status and issues of religious minorities and to regulate policy matters to redress the piled-up critical problems so far.
  10. Secular political parties are under threat and secular Bangladesh is gradually being turned into a fertile land of Islamic communal  forces and extremists.

This was sent in by a long time reader and supporter of IndiaFacts.