The update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam will have huge implications for those that are left off the final list. However, the bureaucratic process itself has been marginalising and its ongoing effects must be scrutinised. In our survey of 64 individuals across Lower and Upper Assam we found that clarity about the application process has been, since 2015, almost absent at the ground level. This is a government failure that has allowed misinformation and anxiety to flourish and has resulted in draft list (and potential citizenship) exclusions on the basis of technicalities. People have suffered direct economic costs in attempting to complete the NRC process, since they have had to miss work and travel long distances to obtain documentation and for verification. This has hit the poorest residents of Assam the hardest. There is also widespread incredulity over the lack of transparency of the application process and the shifting rules given by the Supreme Court, which is taking a negative psychosocial toll. Half of the men and two-thirds of the women described their experience of undergoing the bureaucratic exercise in negative terms, with several describing the environment as “fearful”, “intimidating” or recounting harassment. This disorganisation has produced an arbitrariness on the ground that is structurally, materially and physically affecting almost all communities, particularly the poor and women.
