From Francis Laleman’s 2004 weblog

 

 

March 17, 2004 - Those of you who have joined me on one of my many tours through Bihar (India) will no doubt agree that the social work for the emancipation of the Dalit and Scheduled Castes communities (the so-called \"untouchables\"), done by my friend Kailash Prasad and his close companions,  is a valuable and result-driven enterprise, but also an extremely difficult one. Few of us, however, realize the petrifying strain and the constant dangers to which a social worker in Bihar exposes him/herself on a daily basis.

The State of Bihar is really nothing more than a region in which anarchy, gun-point warlord tactics and mafia practices have been thriving for almost a century now - and even today it might be one of the most horrifying examples of India not being  the largest democracy in the world, but rather the most ardent demo-crazy.

 

Illustrating this: here is a report taken from the website of the Asian Human Rights Commission with regard to the murder of two social workers in the Bodhgaya area of Bihar in India:

 

Two land rights activists, Sarita and Mahesh Kant, were brutally killed on 24 January 2004 in Gaya, Bihar State. While the circumstances of this murder remain unclear, the basic facts seem to be the following: 

Sarita and Mahesh had been working for several years in Shabdo village, where they were helping the local community to achieve a sustainable and equitable use of land resources.  Sarita and Mahesh mobilized the community of Fatehpur (30 kms from Bodhgaya) to revive an old 45-km canal system on the Bihar-Jharkhand border, which changed the face of Shabdo village, bringing Rajputs (landlords) and Dalits (\"untouchables\")together in the community. They have also helped cure many of their alcohol addiction and helped increase collective farming in the area. However, the local land mafia felt threatened, partly because the work of Sarita and Mahesh involved reclaiming common land that had been encroached upon by powerful gangs.  The local mafia, who are patronized by the ruling party of Bihar (the Hindu fundamentalist BJP -Bharatiy Janata Party), threatened them to give up their work which they refused to do.

On 24 January 2004, as they did every evening, Sarita and Mahesh were travelling on a bike from Shabdo to the Fatehpur Block Resource Centre when at around 7 p.m., they were stopped by heavily armed men and shot at point blank range. The assailants were most likely members of a local gang that was threatened by the work of the two activists. Sarita died immediately, and Mahesh subsequently has died from his gun-shot wounds.

After the incident, several protests have been organized by the people. Mr. Apoorvanand, a fellow activist and protest organizer, remembered Sarita and Mahesh as \"working among the backward castes and Dalits trying to redeem the pledge we as the people of India had made to ourselves 54 years back, but which was left to rot in the backyards of power by the parties who have been our rulers all these years. Safe water, wholesome food,  irrigated land, a smoothly run primary school, a clean and healthy community life - this is the least we expect from a welfare state.

 

see also this investigation report 

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