Dinhata (Cooch Behar), July 31: On the night of March 29 in 2010, Asma Bibi had arrived at the Dinhata subdivisional hospital with the demand that she be allowed to give birth at the hospital. She was already in labour.

Asma is a resident of Mashaldanga, the biggest Bangladeshi enclave in India - which makes her a Bangladeshi citizen and her entry into "India" illegal.

Not that she belonged to Bangladesh. The residents of an enclave have no identity papers at all - they have no state.

Asma's two other children had been born in the enclave. With no documents, women either gave birth in the enclaves, or if they went to an Indian health centre, they gave birth under a false name and provided a false name for their spouse as well.

But Asma was insistent that this time her child would be born with a real identity, with the real names of its father and mother. "I am from a chhitmahal (enclave). My husband, a farmer, is also from the chhitmahal. I will not hide these facts. Because unlike all other children in the enclaves, I want this child of mine to have an identity," she had declared.

Supporting her were activists of an organisation who were working towards an exchange of the Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves.

The hospital officials, who were reluctant at first to admit an enclave resident, relented.

As a tribute to his mother's tireless struggle, the boy was called Jihad. Since Barack Hussein Obama had taken charge a little over a year ago and sent a wave of hope across continents, the US President's name was also thrown in for good measure.

Jihad Hussain Obama, now 5, was even given a birth certificate, which made him an Indian but with the caveat that he was a resident of Mashaldanga. For his community, the boy has been the symbol of hope. Tonight at 12, that hope became real with India and Bangladesh exchanging their enclaves.

The exchange was celebrated in the enclaves with fireworks and cultural events. Jihad will be attending a big event at Mashaldanga, organised by the Bharat Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee, whose activists were present on the hospital premises when the boy was born.

This evening, Jihad himself was busy deciding what to wear: he has three choices of dress, all gifts, which he was trying out one by one. A rare, happy occasion.

The exchange, which incorporates Bangladeshi enclave territory within India and vice versa, allows all the residents to become citizens of a country for the first time.

The Land Boundary Agreement, which makes the exchange possible, will have 51 Bangladeshi enclaves exchanged with 111 Indian enclaves. In practical terms, it will mean that the boundaries around these little pockets of foreign land will disappear and they will merge with the host countries. India will gain 7,000 acres and Bangladesh 17,000 acres.

Jihad, his family and his neighbours will become Indian citizens, full-fledged, despite the little reminder in his birth certificate.

The around 14,000 residents of the Bangladeshi enclaves in India will become Indian citizens; in Bangladesh, barring 979 people who have chosen to cross over to India, 41,000-odd residents of the Indian enclaves will become Bangladeshi citizens.

The residents of the enclaves will get identity papers and land in their own name. Actually for the first time, a real name.

" Amra swadheen", "Freedom at last", claim endless posts on the WhatsApp group called "Chhitmahal Photo Upload" (written in Bengali), which has the Indian flag as its group icon. It is like being free after 67 years of Independence.

Initially, it was assumed that there would be an influx of people from Bangladesh's Indian enclaves into India. But only 979 people are coming over from Bangladesh. Not many wanted to leave the country that was their home; though they were foreigners there.

But becoming actual citizens and owners will take some time. On the Indian side at least, work will only begin now.

It will be like laying out a new country, for no government agency exists in an enclave. Schools, colleges, hospitals, police stations, roads - all will have to be created.

After a notification is issued by the state government, a land survey will be conducted in the erstwhile enclave areas, says district law officer Samim Rahaman. This will denote mauzas. The smaller patches of land accrued will be attached to the existing mauzas. In case of big stretches, say a big enclave, a new mauza will be created.

This will be followed by the new or bigger mauzas being accommodated into the panchayat system.

The new areas will be allocated police stations and post offices; in some cases new police stations or post offices will have to be created.

All the Bangladeshi enclaves are in Cooch Behar district.

This is the larger framework. Officials are worried about what may happen when it comes to redistributing the land among the individual owners.

First, the government will have to keep some land aside for development infrastructure: school buildings, anganwadis, health centres, roads, space for electricity lines, water supply.... The land has to be gained with the consent of the residents.

Second, the residents in many cases don't have any papers. Although the basic principle of land allocation is "possession backed by documents" or "documents backed by possession", this may prove tricky, especially if one person's claim is contested by another.

Third, through the almost seven decades after Independence, generations have been born in the enclaves and some have left. They live in Indian territory, with false Indian identity papers, perhaps not far away from their enclaves. Some of them are now seeking the return of the land they owned in the enclaves. This could be a source of trouble, says Rabindranath Ghosh, Trinamul MLA from Natabari.

Fourth, it is not clear how the people who are arriving from Bangladesh will be rehabilitated here.

The processing of identities will be another long haul. It will be done in stages: voter cards will be followed by Aadhaar cards, which will be followed by ration cards.

"Because we don't have these, we don't get Kanyashri or minority benefits," said Lovely Khatun, a student of Class X. She said she used the name of her father's friend as her father's through the school years, because the two men share the same name, although she used the friend's address.

The integration of the new people is an opportunity to bring in development, so required in north Bengal, many feel.

For example, says Ghosh, the bridge that will be inaugurated on August 4 by chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Haldibari is a product of the momentum generated by the exchange. There will be roads, bridges and much more to follow, says Ghosh.

The Centre had earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for such development following the exchange, he pointed out, although that amount may change with the number of people arriving from Bangladesh falling below expectations.