Inserts:

00:03 Report / Nimisha Jaiswal 
00:26 Moifiddul Islam, Migrant worker from Assam
00:52 Aktaru Sheikh, Migrant worker from West Bengal
01:12 Nimisha Jaiswal / DW Correspondent
01:50 Mukul Hasan Sheikh, Community leader

Script:

00:01
Breathe and revoice Moifiddul pointing at an official list with images
“This is my father, my mother, that’s me..”

00:04
((Wide shot of man looking at papers in his sparse house, then of a large pile of documents and the list of his family))

Moifiddul Islam doesn’t have much, but he has his documents. He’s been through a verification before - and his family is listed on a citizen register in his home state of Assam. Yet, two weeks ago, police picked him up from where he lives in this slum, in the middle of the night. 

00:26
SOT Moifiddul Islam, Migrant worker from Assam
I didn’t get to ask any questions, they didn't let us talk. They didn’t even ask us if we had our IDs or not, they just arrested us. + What can we do? And then they threaten us, and scare us. 

00:37
((Shot of city, then of slum))
The tech and finance city of Gurugram depends on the labour of migrants like Moifiddul. Recently, police officers have reportedly detained hundreds like him and Aktaru Sheikh - on suspicion of being Bangladeshi.  

00:52
SOT Aktaru Sheikh, Migrant worker from West Bengal
They made me strip to my underwear. They said they’ll just look at my documents and let me go. + I showed them so many papers, even documents of my grandfather’s grandfather. They said no, you’re a Bangladeshi, you’ve forged these. 

01:06
((Shot of slippers))
Both men say they were held for a week. 

01:09
PTC
The police here did not want to speak to us on camera, but they did say that they have been detaining only suspected Bangladeshis, and that any Indians with legitimate documents have nothing to fear. + They denied anyone was held for more than 3 or 4 days, and they said nobody was ill-treated. They also claimed that they did identify Bangladeshis who they’ll now deport, and that this verification drive will continue.  

01:32
((Shots of community leader walking into settlement, talking to man))
Mukul Sheikh has spent the last weeks visiting scared family members of those detained, and trying to reassure those who have just been released. He rejects the police narrative, and says in the 25 years he’s lived here since leaving West Bengal, he’s never seen anything like this. 

01:49
SOT Mukul Hasan Sheikh, Community leader 
Is it a crime to be a Muslim, and a Bengali-speaker? + Why are they only questioning the poor? There are well-off people from West Bengal too, why don’t they raid their homes and arrest them? The educated can defend themselves, so they won’t question them. They’ll only target the poor. 

02:08
((Shots of people))
Most domestic, sanitation and daily wage workers in the city are Bengali-speaking migrants. Since the detentions began, many have fled in fear. 

02:19
((Tiltdown of high rises, trash)) 
Leaving the city sitting in its own trash.

02:24
SOT Mukul
Will the educated do their own dirty work? Only the poor clean their houses. + Now as all the workers leave, people will find out what happens in a week’s time when all the trash piles up. 

02:41
((Shots of second man, then first man picking trash, then second man))
Both Moifuddin and Akhtaru will remain. There ’s no work at home to provide for their families - so they stay - even at the risk of being detained again. 

02:52
SOT Akhtaru Sheikh
I felt really sad. I was born here, and they called me a Bangladeshi. They picked up a Hindu in front of me, saw his name and let him go. They told him to go on his way. But when they heard my Muslim name, they detained me. 

3:12 - breathe singing

3:18
((Shots of Akhtaru singing))
Akhtaru says he grew up alongside Hindus hearing their hymns - he sometimes sings them outside temples to earn tips.

3:27 - breathe singing

3:31
((shots of singing))
 He says Indians are brothers and should not allow the authorities to divide them.  

3:36 - VO ends
3:41 - shots end