Bahishkrit Hitkari Sangathan

Rekha Devi was raised as a city girl in Parbatta. Her father had a good job, and she her sisters had a comfortable childhood in a huge house. Although they belonged to the backward Kanu caste, they never felt much discrimination while growing up in the town. Her life changed when her family bowed down to social norms and got her married just before she turned 18.

When she arrived in Noronga village after getting married, she was shocked to find that she had been lied to. The financial condition of her in laws was very bad. Her husband who was much older to her, worked as a daily wage labourer, and soon she had to soon join him, even during her pregnancy. She went through many difficult years as she shuttled between her maternal and marital home, lack of money pushing her in one direction, and societal pressure pushing her in the other. During one of these trips, Rekha met Sanjeev, who heard her story. She seemed to be someone who could work with other women. Sanjeev decided to make her the teacher of the school where he was teaching women. That decision surely helped bring more women to school—they could connect with her, at the same time, they felt that she was empowered because she was educated.

“More and more women began to come to me with their problems. I could not solve them but they were happy that I was listening. At the same time, teaching the women to read and write took my mind off my miseries,” says Rekha. She is now an integral part of BHS, and actively participates in everything, right from the planning of meetings to encouraging women to be steadfast in opposing any kind of repression or violence against them.

The oppression against women has been caste and gender based. Hunger and fear would lead women to surrender themselves to the rich landlords for an extra handful of grain. Rape was an unspoken of crime, perpetrated by the feudal lords. In 2006, BHS took up the case of a woman on whom rape was attempted. They soon realised that if the case was taken to the cops and the courts, the culprit would be released, and the woman would be forced to turn hostile. So about 100-150 women went to that man’s village, surrounded his house and began to hurl shoes and stones, and also spit on his house. They made a lot of noise and ensured that he lost face in society. Then the culprit was called to the Panchayat where he held his ears and begged pardon. This had made quite an impact amongst the people. Because the sangathan highlighted such cases, people from the lower castes began to feel that indeed their lives also mattered, and that nobody ought to touch them. They felt strong enough to discuss these matters and protest against atrocities.

Another issue that the sangathan took up was of the children in the region who are mostly fathered by the higher caste men. These men would threaten the lower caste families and make them give the girls and women for a night. BHS faced much opposition from the higher castes, because they were exposing the fact that the women from the Dom community were their wives for the night but were untouchables during the day. These men would not give their name to the child they fathered, nor could the child address them as their father. Now following the intervention by the sangathan, the men from the higher castes have stopped forcing the lower caste women to be with them for the night.

The idea of the Ganga Kalash Yatra is to counter the stronghold of the upper castes on everything, including rituals. Sanjeev sees it as a major symbol of peaceful revolution within the society. In the past, Doms did not have the right to access the main river Ganga, and were allowed to use only its tributary. In 2006, BHS started the Bahishkrit Chetna Mela in which women of backward castes, in a move to challenge the practice of untouchability, collected water for the ritual from the main river. The first year, many women did not participate as they were afraid to go against tradition, but 175 women gathered for the programme. The event was well covered by the media and became a landmark, and has been carried out off and on over the next few years.

A month prior to the day of the Mela, one of the karyakartas from the Kumhaar (potter) community and her family gets involved in making earthen pots. Once made, they are then painted with limestone, a process that gets all the women involved. The next morning, at Aguwani ghat of the Ganga, the women bathe and then collect the water in their pots and walk about 7 kms to Parbatta town. The entire town wakes up to this spectacle. Once the women have reached the venue of the Mela, they participate in the meetings and activities. The opportunity is used to convey people’s issues to the representatives of the administration, and this is followed by a debate on the promises offered by the administration. A mini camp of all the departments of the administration, like health, aanganwadi, Indira Awas Yojna, NREGA, etc., are set up, where people’s complaints can be redressed. The event ends the next day, with women taking the pots and throwing them in the river. The karyakartas of BHS and the women take a vow that they will not be oppressed in the coming year.

In 2011 women from 17 backward castes participated. There were people from the Scheduled Castes (SC) like Dom, Chamaar, Musahar, Rajak; and from Other Backward Castes (OBC) like Kanu, Kamaar, Dhanuk, Yadav, Mali, Baheli, Naai, Teli, Baniya, Julha, Kumhar, Teeyar, Koyri and there were Muslims. In all, 1011 women were part of this significant event. This year, the Mela was presided by Shiv Malik, who is from the Chamaar community. The attempt has been to have someone from a backward caste sitting next to the minister on the dais and presiding over the meeting.

After BHS was formed in 2006, the first district level meeting was held on June 19, 2006 for which about 700 people gathered together. Many senior and recognised people had promised to come, but none of them turned up because this was an event of the Dom people. So the Doms themselves inaugurated the function and began the programme. That gave the people enough confidence and made them realize that they need not rely on others.

Since they were never considered part of the mainstream system, they initiated their own elections. They made their own wards within the district, elected the mukhiya (head of village council) and sarpanch (village head). They managed to resolve local disputes through this system, rather than going to the police station or the courts. Each year, they have an election where they elect a president at the village, block and district levels.

The office bearers of this new panchayat are addressed according to the offices they hold, such as “Sarpanch jii” or “Mukhiya jii”. When the Doms began to address them with those titles, the people from the rest of the society also addressed them thus. So they began to feel a kind of dignity and self respect that they had never experienced before. However, not going to the established institutions like the police or courts is just a short term strategy till people feel confident enough to hold their own in those spaces.

After BHS was formed in 2006, the first district level meeting was held on June 19, 2006 for which about 700 people gathered together. Many senior and recognised people had promised to come, but none of them turned up because this was an event of the Dom people. So the Doms themselves inaugurated the function and began the programme. That gave the people enough confidence and made them realize that they need not rely on others.

Since they were never considered part of the mainstream system, they initiated their own elections. They made their own wards within the district, elected the mukhiya (head of village council) and sarpanch (village head). They managed to resolve local disputes through this system, rather than going to the police station or the courts. Each year, they have an election where they elect a president at the village, block and district levels.

The office bearers of this new panchayat are addressed according to the offices they hold, such as “Sarpanch jii” or “Mukhiya jii”. When the Doms began to address them with those titles, the people from the rest of the society also addressed them thus. So they began to feel a kind of dignity and self respect that they had never experienced before. However, not going to the established institutions like the police or courts is just a short term strategy till people feel confident enough to hold their own in those spaces.

The government has a Special Component Plan for the SCs, STs and OBCs, but just 17 per cent of the funds were being been used. BHS has been holding dialogues with the administration and this has helped in the proper implementation of many government schemes. The sangathan brought officials to the villages to get them to listen to the people and understand their issues. This process was done in Parbatta block where people’s individual and community issues were articulated, recorded and analysed. The people then began to knock the doors of officials at the block and district levels, and tell the administration that they too existed. Their names were thus included in the voter and BPL lists. People were given money to build their homes as per the Indira Awas Yojna, and allotted the arable land that they were entitled to. They were also given job cards to be eligible for getting work under NREGA.