'We are not from China'

Mizo girl Baby has learned to live with taunts about her looks and inablility to speak fluent Hindi/Marathi at her Pune college

Having fun with her friends on the green campus of Spicer Memorable College, Pune, Baby wonders how many more years she has to spend to become 'one of their own'.

Three years on and Baby, born in Mizoram, is still treated like she is from China.

"People from other states and settled here don't have to carry an identity card but we have to," said Baby, a second year Sociology student from Spicer Memorial College.

Ever since she arrived in the city Baby had faced the prejudice against the people from Northeast.

"People think that we are from China or some other Asian country because we look like them, dress up smartly and are unable to speak Marathi or Hindi fluently," she said.

"Not just the local populace even the cops look at us suspiciously," Baby pointed out.

She claimed that on many occasions local police has stopped her and her friends demanding identity cards from them.

"Many of the cops don't even know that Mizoram is an Indian state. If we are not carrying identity cards, we end up paying money to rid ourselves of obtuse questions about our identity, profession, residence etc," Baby said.

But it is not just the cops. What hurts the bubbly girl the most is when sometimes even some friends refer to the students from Northeast as "chinkys".

And then there are local people who take every opportunity to harass girls from the region. Eve teasing, lewd comments are a part of Baby's "daily life".

Though all the bias and prejudice about her community saddens the cheerful Mizo girl, she has learned to leave all that behind and get on with her life, studies and friends.