Musahars: Never-ending Tales Of Deprivation And Exploitation

Bihar me bahaar hai, kyonki  kursi par Nitishe Kumar hai (It’s spring in Bihar because Nitish Kumar is in power). It’s a slogan the government and the ruling alliance in Bihar love to repeat. A rhyming couplet which lends a poetic and fairy tale touch to the story of Bihar and Nitish Kumar. And so, it is not surprising that even when a Niti Aayog report puts the state on top of the list of India’s poorest states, the government is in denial. According to the report, 52 per cent of Bihar’s population is poor. In the neighbouring states of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the figure stands at 42 and 38 per cent, respectively.  

But poetry is a double-edged sword. Like the fam­ous verses of Adam Gondvi, a poet who captured the pulse of the Hindi belt like no other: Aaiye mehsoos kariye zindagi ke taap ko/Main chamaaro ki gali me le chalunga aap ko. (Come feel the heat of life as it is/I will take you down the cobblers’ street). This is about the Musahars, who were earlier bracketed as Dalits and now have been categorised by the government as Mahadalits (most backward Dalits). There is a district in Bihar called Kaimur, and in the district headquarters of Bhabhua, the colony under Ward No. 7 is called Sewri Nagar. You do not have to try too hard to feel the despair and destitution spread over the road along a canal that leads to this Musahar settlement.

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It is believed that the word ‘Musahar’ is made by joining two Hindi words: mus meaning rat, and ahar, which means food. Thus, they are ref­erred to as the community which eats rats, who the so-called cultured elite do not even deem fit to touch. In some places they are called Vanavasi (forest-dwellers) and elsewhere Bhuiyan or Majhi. The one thing that is certain is that their condition remains pitiable even in the 21st century, in the era when we’re looking forward to the first manned flight to Mars. There is hardly anyone within the community who has studied bey­ond matriculation. According to literacy figures released by the state government, even among SCs, the 27 lakh Musahars fare the worst.  

Sudha Varghese, who has been working among the community for a long time, says: “Let the discrimination end first, only then we will be in a condition to talk about education among the Musahars. Even today, this community faces the worst situation. As far as I know, earlier the (literacy) figure among Musahar women was one per cent, now it stands at around three per cent among women and five per cent for men, the lowest.”

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The stories of Musahars are heart-wrenching. Of shattered dreams. Chhotu (22) from the Musahar Toli in Sewri Nagar tells us: “I tried very hard to study. I told my family that I want to study further but nob­ody paid attention. When I used to go to school, people would resent it. I didn’t get a response when I filed (complaints). Gradually I shifted to rag-picking. It was only my good luck that now I have become the cleaner in a school-bus, so I can earn a little. Maybe, I will be able to educate my children.”

One can guess by just looking at Chhotu and his wife Shobha that they were married minors, and have had to take care of their children even before turning adults. Shobha has not even got a voter identity card yet and is already a mother of one. It becomes important to note that child marriages are so common among Musahars that most women appear malnourished. Their faces tell the stories of being married at a young age and giving birth without receiving proper nutrition. Most men are clearly under the spell of addiction. Since the families’ economic condition is alr­eady dire, this reflects on the children too. They are unable to experience childhood. This is evident from the case of Gunja, washing dishes at an age where she should be playing with dolls and going to school.

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On paper the central and state governments have launched several schemes for people living below the poverty lines: like the Prime Minister’s Housing scheme for people living in mud (kuchcha) houses, the Ujjwala cooking gas scheme for women and the state government’s Saat Nischay (seven pledges) Scheme, which inc­ludes promises such as piped water supply for every house, toilets in every street and the establishment of anganwadis in and around Dalit settlements. The anganwadis are also supposed to provide nutritious food and education to children. However, only the piped water scheme is visible on the ground.

Residents of the entire colony have not been given the benefit of the PM urban housing scheme. Although the residents of these settlements fall under the Mahadalit category and are eligible to be granted three decimals of land by the government, they have not received any­thing so far. They are also unable to take advantage of the MNREGA because their area comes under a nagar parishad (urban council). Most of the men are employed as daily wagers for whom finding employment becomes very difficult. This colony has around 70 houses, which translates to around 150 voters, but all of them remain outside the mainstream.

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When asked why the Toli’s residents have not been given benefits under the PM housing scheme, ward councillor Manoj Kumar Singh says: “We applied to everyone, from the Chief Minister to the district-level officers. There have been several probes and surveys. But all the surveys and investigations have remained on paper. From the time of Lalu (Yadav) to now, when Nitish has been the CM for many terms, nothing seems to happen.”

After noticing an anganwadi building in the Musahar colony, we tried to find out how effective it is in providing nutrition and education to the local children. We discovered that the anganwadi worker and assistant were both women from the councillor’s own family. When asked why his family was running the anganwadi, the leader changed the subject to lament the spread of the coronavirus and the food quality in the anganwadi scheme.

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Another resident, Jitendra, tells us how he lost his mother Mukhiya Devi and a niece to an accident three years ago. On a rainy night, the wall of their house collapsed on them. When the news was published in the local newspaper, the local MLA and block development officer paid a visit and announced compensation of Rs 8 lakh for the two victims’ family. However, they have not received a single penny so far, the family alleged. Singh confirmed that Rs 4 lakh each was indeed pledged and the MLA had arrived at the victim’s house but the money was never paid. “How long can one complain and to whom?”.

Another woman had a similar retort for this reporter: “What will you change by making a film? Many others have filmed us earlier, but things remain the same.”

Even hope has deserted the colony and the community.  

(This appeared in the print edition as "Walk With Me Down Musahar Street")

(Views expressed are personal)

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Vishnu Narayan is an independent journalist