Meet Sefali Rani Das Who Fought to Win Back her Indian Citizenship

A woman in India's north-eastern state of Assam has been left with debt and anxiety after a seven-year battle to regain her citizenship.

Shefali Rani Das is a resident of Mohankhal village in Cachar district's Sonai constituency and is the daughter of Lakhi Das. Her citizenship was questioned in a complaint filed against her in 2015.

Shefali received a notification from the Foreigners Tribunal court, instructing her to attend with the appropriate documentation to verify her Indian citizenship. On multiple occasions, her lawyer failed to appear in court. Shefali was deemed a foreigner on September 19, 2017, after the lawyer failed to contact her.

After thoroughly reviewing all of Das's documents, the panel overturned its previous decision. Finally, on January 17, 2022, she was granted Indian citizenship.

Das's campaign for justice was particularly admirable, according to Parimal Suklabaidya, a local member from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), because she came from a distant location where even existence was a struggle.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been labelled illegal migrants in Assam over the last few decades, according to Das.

The cost was high: the family is now having difficulty repaying the money they borrowed to fight the case. They must also prove that her husband is an Indian citizen in a separate case.