Citizenship and statelessness in South Asia

This paper purports to examine the state of statelessness in South Asia, one of the regions in which the phenomenon thrives and is much underreported. It will look at three rejected peoples of the subcontinent: the Estate Tamils in Sri Lanka; the Bhutanese in Nepal; and the Biharis in Bangladesh. Questions that will be addressed include: what are the conditions giving rise to statelessness in the three cases; how the various parties involved interact with each other including the states, affected peoples and international bodies; what measures have been undertaken to address the phenomenon and with what success are these met?