Bangladesh's forgotten students: The Biharis struggle

Despite facing discrimination from their Bengali neighbors, the children of Geneva camp have inherited a proud tradition of ethnic and religious identity from their parents.

(Mark Rafferty and Anna Gilmer (Tufts University) Student Correspondent Corps)

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The slum in northern Dhaka is only slightly larger than an acre, but the tin-and-concrete homes packed inside its borders  hold upwards of 25,000 inhabitants. The neighborhood, known as “Geneva Camp,” is crowded and undeveloped; families of ten people typically live together in single rooms, there is only one latrine for every ninety families and no more than 5 percent of the population has a formal education.

What sets this slum apart from others in Dhaka, however, is not the sheer density of its population or the inhumanity of its living conditions — but rather the fact that its inhabitants are Bihari, an ethnic identification that puts them in a minority comprising less than 1 percent of Bangladesh’s population.

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