Dalit woman humiliated and victimized in Allahabad
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 12, 2010, 00:19
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Her one eye is completely turned red at the moment, as the upper caste
goons threw slippers at her. The entire body bears the brunt of the
brahmanical violence on July 3 at the Sheetalpur Tikari village under
Tharwai police station in Allahabad. Her clothes were torn and the
goons tried to pee on her mouth, but the police kept her in the police
station for 24 hours and tried to deny anything like that happened.
This is the story of Lalli Devi, 45, who was constructing a house
allotted to her under the Indira Awas Yojna when Devi Sharan Mishra, a
local money lender and well connected person came along with some
other members and demolished the house. As Lalti tried to reason with
the man, she, her husband Gulab and her son aged 12 years were beaten
mercilessly by these goons. Her huts where she used to sleep and cook
were completely razed to the ground.
'It was the incident at around 8 am on Saturday when I was cleaning my
chulha,' said Lalli. 'Eight members led by Devi Mishra just entered in
with lathis and thrashed me after beating my husband and son. Sir,
they put me on ground, put their feet on my chest and tried to pee on
my mouth. I resisted but they tore my clothes, hit at me and threw
slippers at me which hurt my eyes. It is aching now and has turned
red. I am still not able to breathe properly,' said Lalti when I
visited her. There is no place for them to sleep. It's rainy season
and given the nature of our villages, Lalli and her family have no way
to save themselves from the fury of nature.
According to police officials, there was a land feud between the two
which was in the court and there was a stay on it. When Lalli Devi was
constructing her house, given to her under Indira Awas Yojna, Devi
Mishra and his gangsters demolished it and also razed her other huts
to ground, beat up her husband and thrashed her when she reacted. She
was humiliated and her body bears the mark of the thrashing.
This nondescript village resembles the old structural villages of
India, which Baba Saheb Ambedkar described as a 'den of feudalism,
nepotism and corruption.' The village in darkness. The village has
five families of Yadavs, 10 families of Patels (OBCs), 25-30 families
of Passies (Dalits) and nearly 20 families of Brahmins. Nearly 10
families belong to Telis i.e. Guptas and one family belongs to
Dhaikar, a Dalit community which is engaged in bamboo weaving work.
They make bamboo baskets and other related things. And seeing the
tyranny of the caste system in the village, none of the communities
came to her rescue. The Brahmins, as master manipulators are using all
techniques to disturb her. They are in the power structure everywhere.
She is alone. The Kurmis near her do not feel for her; the Pasis are
known to resist yet not a single person is ready to speak. The terror
of these Brahmin is so high that a Dalit woman says, 'Why do you speak
to us. Are you not able to see our faces and judge as what is the
situation here?' Lalli Devi know this situation as she says, 'Most of
the people saw me being dragged on the ground and my cloths torn but
nobody wants to speak as they fear the powerful.'
A police Jeep is patrolling in front of her house. She went to the
police station to lodge her complaint, but she was not only hounded
but kept at the police station for 24 hours. Daily Amar Ujala and
Hindustan reported it on July 6 and later the local news channels
started running the story on their prime time which suggested that
Lalli Devi was attacked and her clothes were torn but police deny she
was paraded in the village. However, the question is whether hiding
things make the grave incident less grave? For the police officials,
it is like any other land dispute. They term it as a fight between two
leaders for lording over the Dalits and other communities in the
region. The Brahmin politics of Allahabad is well known to be
explained here. But for the information of the readers, the member of
Parliament is a former pracharak of BJP but now his 'heart' is changed
and hence is a man of 'social justice' in the BSP, though his
brother's heart still beats for BJP and hence he is MLA from that
party. The other brother has just achieved victory for MLC on BSP
ticket. None of them had visited so far. But the leaders from other
political parties are also visiting her. I do not know but Lalli Devi
tells that she was given support of Rs 3000/- by one politician and Rs
1000/- by the other. That is the cost of the dignity and respect of a
Dalit woman in India.
The police officers on duty are mostly agreeing that she was beaten up
and 'sab kuchch galat hua' but they are not ready to accept that 'her
dignity' was attacked. When I ask them whether any case has been filed
under the Prevention of SC-ST Atrocities Act, they answer in the
affirmative, but that has to be verified at later stage and action
need to be seen. The culprit Devi Mishra's supporters charge that the
Lalli Devi is working on behalf of village Sarpanch Yogesh Tiwari who
functions as a Sarpanch pati, defecto Sarpanch of the village.
Antecedents of the culprits
Most of the villagers say that the Brahmins play power politics in the
village and that Devi Mishra is a moneylender. As we know well that in
Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, the moneylenders suck your blood more
than even the corporate. Here the interest rates are exorbitantly
high. According to the villagers, it is according to the 'favor' done
by the moneylenders but nonetheless it starts from a minimum interest
of 5 percent per month but normally is 10 percent month. Most of the
villagers actually mortgage their papers and the problem is that at
the time of receiving the money, they do not really bother to check
the contents of the agreement and later are trapped in the game and,
therefore, lose their land or other immoveable assets.
Devi Mishra's supporters say that Lalli Devi does not own that land on
which she was constructing her Indira Awas, as the land legally
belongs to him as he bought it, while Lalti Devi says that her
father-in-law was a habitual drunk and nobody ever took him seriously.
She also says that her husband is not well and has hearing problem.
The fact is that she lives in the Abadi, i.e. human settlement side
which is never recorded, and on the ground the grave reality is that
Mishra and his goons assaulted her. Even if everything that Lalli Devi
was saying is wrong, that never justifies the grave violence inflicted
on her by the arrogant brahmanical forces of the region and the
dubious role played by the local police which were unable to arrest
the culprits.
Though nobody is verifying things yet, some of the Dalits, on the
condition of anonymity, informed that Devi Mishra is a junior engineer
with some government department. According to them, he does not go to
his office. Probably, it is a common decease in UP and elsewhere that
the upper caste benami officers. It is up to the government to think
over it and take action against him if it is proved that he is a
government servant. Not only should his job records be produced to the
court but also all those who connived with him in this misdeed should
be arrested.
The village and the lonely woman
As Baba Saheb Ambedkar said, the caste system has never provided any
unity of the oppressed and hence annihilation of caste is essential
for social justice but how and who would be interested in it as
annihilation of the caste itself meant elimination of the brahmanical
social order? This hierarchical structure keeps people isolated and it
is the biggest obstacle in the unity of the oppressed people
ghettoized in their own shells. Here, also, if one sees the isolation
of Lalli Devi, one only realizes how prophetic Ambedkar was in his
analysis of our 'great' 'villages' which has ascending order of
respect and descending order of contempt as, the community that Lalli
belongs to does not serve any political purpose for those for whose
vote matters the most.
Just adjacent to her huts are people who are not ready to share her
pain and agony. Women are inside their houses. In the local PDS shop,
I meet an old man who refuses to answer my question. I ask him, Baba,
just tell me what happened to Lalli and this man says 'sab karmo ka
phal hai,' everything is the result of her karma. I ask Baba, what is
your caste and this man informs me that he is a 'Kurmi' which is a
powerful backward community. Yes, she does not belong to your caste
and hence you are not bothered about her, I scold him. Near him, is a
lonely woman whose brick house is just adjacent to Lalli. Yes, Uma
Devi is a Teli by caste. A single woman, she narrates her plight as
how her land was snatched and converted by the powerful Brahmin in the
village and she was thrown here. Uma is a lonely woman, left by her
husband and rejected by her family, she lives a life of pain and
agony. She does not speak. The villagers speak for her as if she
cannot speak. The cruelty of village life is reflected in the eyes of
Uma. Even a child can scold her in front of everyone to the 'delight'
of all the elders.
She shares the pain of Lalli but only says that she was not at home.
Everyone is speaking the same language of not being there. How is it
possible in the village, where you can see huge crowds on a small
issue, that a woman is being robbed, molested and none of them has
seen it? The police will work for a few days and after some time the
'situation' comes back to normalcy. Villagers know it well that they
will have to respond again and as there is no 'witness' to the case,
Lalli Devi may not get justice. The only possibility is that a few
politicians and administration officials would try to 'compensate' her
honor in a few thousands rupees. But Lalli Devi says, 'Sir, I was born
here. My parents and grandparents lived her for so long. I cannot
leave this place. This is my home. I want to die here only.' But the
pressure is on her to leave as none is ready to cooperate with her and
we all know that after several years the judiciary would not be able
to give her justice. Lalli Devi knows that politicians are coming;
media is highlighting the issue but just for a few days. After that
she will remain alone along with her husband and a child. 'Politicians
promise a lot but I know they never come back,' says Lalli.
While Lalli says she did not face any caste based discrimination but
the fact is isolation and ghettoisation is a way of life in the
villages and an accepted norm. As her opponents are charging her as a
close associate with Pradhan, she says categorically that she neither
knows the Sarpanch nor wants to get involved in their activity. How
will be interested in us? she asks.
As I move around in the Pasi locality, a lot of sign boards bear the
slogans of NREGS, promising a bright future for the villagers. 'Why
should you leave village when the work is at home,' is one slogan. The
question one must ask these people is why migration is increasing. Is
it just for work or it is for dignity also? What do we expect from
people like Lalli Devi? Will she be allowed to live a life peacefully
in the village by the feudal structure?
There is scarcity of water in the village. In the hamlet of Pasis, for
over 25 families, they have just one water connection. So it is war
among the poor. One family pays Rs 18/- a month apart from the basic
investment of Rs 3000/- yet no water on time. 'Of course, water will
be here for a few days as Netas come here and TV cameras roam around,
but once things die down, nothing happens. It will again be the same
politics of Mishras and Tiwaris, says a villager. None of them have
land and yet less than 10 percent of them have the BPL card. It is
shameful, says an old man, that all the landless people have an APL
card. As far as the job card is concerned, they do not get any work.
Poor people do not even know that they have to apply for the job. They
feel it is a favor by the village Pradhan or some political party.
Conclusion
Lalli Devi's honor was violated at Sheetalpur Tikari. Her house has
been demolished. Even the police admit that she was beaten
mercilessly, though they do not agree with everything that Lalti Devi
speak. The issue is much bigger here. Is the crime against her less
serious? What are the police doing. Have they really taken
investigation to a conclusion? How will it destroy the nexus of the
money lending upper castes who are illegally grabbing lands of the
Dalits in these areas? Our experience shows that the police and
authorities try to shut your mouth by compensating the person. They
know well that after some days the issue would close down.
Human Rights are meant for each citizen of the country. A truly
democratic governance structure should ensure that the most
marginalized and tiniest minority must feel safe and secure. Our
villages do not provide that confidence where the women, like Lalli
Devi, feel secure and can live a life with freedom and dignity. The
goons can come any time and assault her and our structure tries to
compensate it in a few thousand rupees while condoning the racist
nature of our society. Though the police cannot fight such violence,
they can best do the work impartially and take the case to a logical
conclusion. It will take a long time. How can we ensure justice to
Lalli Devi? Can our Human Rights bodies take any action against the
authorities and follow it up? But if it takes years to get justice,
then how will Lalli and her family remain free and safe from the
violence of the village and that of the goons? Will the police act
against their own officers who denied anything happened and Lalli was
lying?
Indian villages need radical changes. India's administration needs
bigger changes so that the democratic thought can flourish and women
like Lalli Devi do not live in constant fear and humiliation. Can we
grow and ensure that each one in the country lives in dignity and
self-respect? Right now, we can only wait for justice for Lalli. Hope
the Uttar-Pradesh authorities are listening and take swift action.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat lives in Dehli, India, and works as a full-time
human rights defender. He has made several documentaries and also
written books on the issues of human rights, Dalits, women and
minorities. He also publishes the blog Manuski : Humanism for All.
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