Thy Kingdom Come

I came across these stories when I was traveling in some of our project locations in North Bihar recently.

P was a young teenage girl growing up in one of the MD tola of a North Bihar village. She, like any girl of her age had her aspirations of a life with her “ideal man” and spent time dreaming about the same. But little did she realize that life would turn out different for her soon. A man in his mid-thirties introduced to parents by her chacha, was proposed for marriage to her, which was agreed upon for a bride price of 50,000/-. She had not much choice in the matter. Money was the deciding factor. What they were getting was more than what some others had received. And this was not unusual, others from their village had gone through these kinds of alliances earlier. The man was from nearby state of UP, and the chacha was close to the village Pradhan from a higher caste, (AC) who had connections with Netas. Chacha was respected as one of the few from their caste who had studied and had influence. He would do only well for them! He was the one who helped them whenever they were in a crises any way!

Few months later, P was brought back, and left by the man saying that he is going off on a business trip and would return later to pick her up. Which never happened. P did not initially tell the stories of abuse and torture which she went through, but as days went by, as she lost hope, the stories came tumbling out, how she was used and abused for money. What about the many who never returned, she wondered, where were they?

Chacha also had other connections. He would in arrangement with the village head, plan the annual trip to Punjab for working in the S’s fields. He would arrange, a group of men and young boys and travel with them to villages in Punjab where the men and boys would be involved in taking care of the fields of rich S farmers. The boys would cook, bring Chai Paani for the workers and the S. As harvest season in their own villages neared, they would return, to work in the fields of the Pradhan, a time for family to come together after a break of 6 months away in Punjab. But the Chacha would request that the boys stay back with him in Punjab to give Chaai Paani for him and the S for a few more months. Any way they will be back next year and could take the boys back.  By the time they return, the boys would have run away (as the story goes) but fact being, they would have been sold off to another S and on and on, never to be heard from again for a few years.

Some of them had wanted to talk to Chacha and Pradhan about this, but they were not sure if it was wise. They, during harvest time has taken Pradhan’s land on sub contract. The agreement was, they would work, harvest and sell back all the products to the Pradhan to be adjusted in the price of the leased land. In addition, they would pay 10 per 100 Rs per month as interest for the money due to the Pradhan for sub leasing the field. In addition, for the marriage they had taken loan and they had to work for repaying the same. This was in addition to the % Chacha would cut from their saving of the Punjab trip for all this and his charges! They could not afford to displease the Pradhan or Chacha, they were their links to sustenance!

Their own Panchayat was a MD reserved one and they were to have their own person as village Mukhya. They actually had one, maybe he could help. But he was only a rubber stamp Mukhya, since his election was funded by the AC Pradhan and so he would only do what he was told to do by the Pradhan. And there was many subsidies available to them from the government and they would receive only if they were in the good books of the Pradhan and Mukhya it was not wise to bring up anything which would affect their livelihood and sustenance!

The mind-set of the average MD was – we have no land and or asset. Nothing good can ever come out of our community. Our sustenance is only if we are subservient to the ACs.  There is no way we will come up, we are born to be subservient! Whereas the ACs possessed the land. They were the “Jugad’s” of rural India. Every situation was an opportunity to make some money or their family! They had the connections, the power of land, assets and power of being AC!

Would life ever change for MDs?

A middle aged lady died a few days ago from the MD village. As per government norms they were to get 1500/- Rs for funeral expenses. The NGO who has been working with them for the last 6 years by setting up a development committee and training them, has told them about their entitlements. They called the various officers who were to provide this, with no avail. Finally at the encouragement of the NGO staff the husband called the DM, the highest authority in the block. He picked up the phone and all the officers landed up in the village to pay 1500/-. He was also told that he would get 20,000/- more if he got the death certificate and other details as soon as possible. Weeks have passed, husband has not yet moved out to do anything. Neighbours have shown no interest in his affairs. He was waiting for the NGO staff to come and help him to get the money. They meet as a village development committee (VDC) every week, but somehow these things never come up. VDC had given an RTI and got a school granted in the tola, only to be routed to the AC tola by one of the ACs changing the map of the village! And their children have to walk 4 km through the OBs tola to the school and this being not safe for the girls, the girls stay back.  And they did not think this man would ever get the 20,000-any way.

Just across the road, in the ACs tola stories are different. A farmers club formed around the same time when the VDC was formed among the MDs, has moved much ahead. Learnt a new way of cultivation, through training given by the NGO and government providing them the seeds. Their produce have gone up by 300% and have more money than ever before to lend to the MDs! And they are progressing by leaps and bounds!

Are we perpetuating structural dis-empowerment by empowering the ACs? What and how long would it take for MDs to be transformed? Structural dis empowerment, years of oppression, negativism, low social capital and a world view of fatalism is what has kept these communities from moving ahead.

But among them, there was one man who said, things will change, he had a hope and a vision for their community. Because he saw himself as created by God equal to the ACs across the road, with potential to become what God want him to be. He believes this for his village too….but how long would this take? How many lives would be lost before this happens? How many young boys and girls would be sold off, destroyed before hope would dawn? 

When Caste, Money and politics muddy lives of these people, what would it take to work for “Thy Kingdom Come” in the lives of these people?