annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

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