JHARKHAND MIRROR

By Gladson Dungdung

Indian Currents 7 September, 2003

Forty-five year old Parvatia Devi, a resident of Danapur, sat smoking in front of her broken hut and desperately waiting not for social justice and dignity, but for the rains to stop so that she could go out for rag picking. This is the kind of life the Musahar community leads in ‘Garib Ka Raj’ (State governed by poor) Bihar, for whom liberty, equality, dignity and social justice is a distant dream, even after the fifty-five years of independence. ‘Mooshik’ is a Sanskrit word which stands for rat; Musahar literally means, “Rat eater”. The Musahar community was named after their vocation of hunting rats. The community is at the lowest rung in the social hierarchical order even among Dalit communities. Musahars are the worst victims of human rights violations in Bihar. Read more…

By Gladson Dungdung

Indian Currents 15 June, 2003

“Untouchability is a phenomenon where a person is discriminated, insulted, tortured, assaulted, beaten, treated as a lesser human, lynched and killed because of his/her birth in certain caste। The culprits often go unpunished as they are always privileged. Economic insecurity is one of the major causes for untouchability. Most of the cases of atrocities do not come out because of economic insecurity. The majority of Dalit community depends on daily wages for their livelihood. If they challenge the landlord or moneylenders, they will be thrown out from the job”.

Recently the Media highlighted two news regarding Dalit atrocities in Maharashtra. The Loksatta dated, 30th April 03 broke the news that ten Dalits were beaten up at Jategoan village in Sholapur district because they had dared to enter the village Temple. Another news was about Dilip Shendge, who was burnt (97%) and is battling between life and death. Seven members of his family including his mother and sister were badly beaten up by upper caste people on 14 May 2003 at Bhutegoan village of Jalna district. Dilip Shendge’s only crime was that being a Dalit, he took water from a public hand pump. Read more…