annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
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INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Bihar<br />
<strong>for</strong> the landowner at the standard wage of<br />
two kg of rice or wheat and half kg of<br />
sattu. However, if a labourer is unable or<br />
unavailable or refuses to attend to his<br />
master’s call, the land granted to him is<br />
confiscated along with the standing crop<br />
and, if harvested, he is <strong>for</strong>ced to pay the<br />
rent <strong>for</strong> the entire year. The arrangement is<br />
liable to be renewed every year. 38<br />
The Dalits are disproportionate<br />
victims of poverty and economic<br />
deprivation. Like most things in Bihar,<br />
governmental programmes are decided on<br />
the basis of caste.<br />
Antyodaya Anna Yojna is a centrally<br />
sponsored scheme aimed at identifying the<br />
poorest of poor among the Below Poverty<br />
Line families and providing them highly<br />
subsidised foodgrains through targeted<br />
Public Distribution System in order to<br />
protect them from the menace of hunger.<br />
But at several villages in Bihar, it is the<br />
caste, not the economic status, which is the<br />
yardstick <strong>for</strong> identification of the<br />
beneficiaries under the Antyodaya Anna<br />
Yojna. At Chanaur village in Darbhanga<br />
district, the ‘identified’ poor families<br />
belonging to the Dalit community are<br />
allegedly denied food grains at subsidised<br />
rates under Antyodaya Anna Yojna. All<br />
such benefits can only be enjoyed if the<br />
“identified” poor families belong to the<br />
Yadav caste. In Chanaur Panchayat there<br />
are five villages - Chanaur, Hanuman<br />
Nagar, Laho, Indrathair and Amaih and<br />
four ration shops. All of them are run by<br />
Yadavs in their own localities. Dalit<br />
populated village Laho does not have a<br />
single ration shop. 39<br />
In September 2004, poverty <strong>for</strong>ced<br />
Dhiran Devi, a Dalit resident of<br />
Ambedkar Colony in Hajipur, to sell her<br />
two-and-half-month-old son to some<br />
women in Patori village of Samastipur<br />
district because of hunger and debt. 40 Her<br />
husband, Lal Babu Paswan, is a TB<br />
patient but he was neither a recipient of<br />
the Red Card meant <strong>for</strong> those below<br />
poverty line nor a beneficiary under the<br />
Anapurna scheme. 41<br />
Driven by hunger and poverty, the<br />
family of Sacchidanand Chaudhry, a Dalit<br />
of Pratapganj locality under Sasaram town<br />
police station, committed suicide en masse<br />
by consuming poison on the night of 16<br />
September 2004. 42<br />
Three lower caste “musahars”, rat<br />
eaters, <strong>report</strong>edly starved to death in<br />
Chhapel village of Rajauli block in<br />
Nawada district. One of the deceased,<br />
Ramavtar Bhuyian of Chhapel village<br />
<strong>report</strong>edly died of starvation. But the<br />
administration refused to acknowledge the<br />
starvation deaths. Rajauli BDO Aslam<br />
Ansari, who was part of an inspection<br />
team that visited Chhapel village on 5<br />
October 2004, stated that the deaths<br />
occurred due to illness. However, the<br />
Circle Officer Ajay Kumar admitted that<br />
he was shocked not to find any trace of<br />
food grains in the house of Daso Bhuyian<br />
who died of starvation. 43<br />
i. Violence against Dalit women<br />
The Dalit women were the most<br />
vulnerable to abuses by the upper caste.<br />
39