Dalits starve after village boycott
Poor dalit families in a Bihar village were allegedly forced to starve after the elected panchayat members passed a socio-economic boycott order that snapped their access to foodgrains from the PDS shop and drinking water. The police booked 15 people and began a probe on Tuesday.
The boycott order was passed at Desiatoli village in Bihar’s eastern Kishanganj district on Sunday evening, reportedly after a minor quarrel between the more affluent Muslim families and the Mahadalit families, who belong to the extremely deprived among the dalits. The boycott decision was taken in a meeting attended by the mukhia, sarpanch and the zila parishad member. Sources, however, said the Mahadalit families were punished for seeking information about the substandard operations of the local PDS shop. “Children in our families have almost been starving since the panchayat asked everyone in the village to stop having any relations with us. We have been prevented from even taking drinking water from the village hand-pumps,” said Bimla Devi, a Mahadalit woman. Jitendra, a Mahadalit boy, said he and other children in the Mahadalit community have been stopped from attending the village school.
Mujibur Rahman, owner of a provision store, said he was afraid of selling anything to the Mahadalit families following the boycott. Police inspector Rajnikant Mishra, who reached the village after Kishanganj SP Manoj Kumar ordered a probe, refused to answer journalists’ questions. “An FIR has been lodged against 15 people under the Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for passing such an illegal order and a probe is on. The culprit will be arrested soon,” Mr Kumar said. With tension prevailing in the village and the nearby area, the police have set up a camp there and conducting patrolling. In Bihar, despite the efforts by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government to empower the dalits, the economically weaker sections among them have been facing atrocities frequently.
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