Dacca Universitya primary target in the early days of the repressionreopened its doors just 2 months ago. More than 10.000 students are now registered. The vice chancellor and many of the students were among the refugees I visited in Eastern India last August. In devastated Kushtia towna district town some 90 miles northwest of Dacca near the Indian borderthe rubble is now being cleared. And even though local resources are meager and the food and stocks very low. returning refugees have started to rebuild their shops and homes and lives. What is happening in Kushtia is fairly typical of what is happening all over Bangladesh. And if one doubts the remarkably fast and smooth return of the refugees. one needs only visit the Salt Lake refugee camp outside Calcutta. which I did on the day following my visit to Bangladesh. Last August this largest camp in India was filled with a teeming mass of humanity--some 300.000 Bengali refugees. In February. the Salt Lake camp was a ghost town. with little more than 10.000 people remainingand they have now left for home. I spoke with an Indian priest who succeeded reasonably well in running a medical center during the refugee influx. But he spoke of how only a few months ago he thought that the refugees would never return. He spoke of the despair that he and the other voluntary agency personnel felt in trying to battle an unending tide of refugees. disease. and squalor. But now he. too. has left. his work done. He has returned to his regular assignment with village health centers in rural India.
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