[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Starvation Death threatening Mushhars in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 04:53:01 -0800

The Chairman,
National Human Rights Commission,
Faridkot House,
New Delhi                                                                                February 9, 2006
 
Re: Starvation issue in Udayapura village, Pathardeva block, Deoria district
 
Dear Sir,
 
This is to bring to your notice that the two Mushahar families of Mushaharbustee in the Udayapura village of Pathardeva block are facing hunger and malnutrition. The families are on the verge of deaths if action is not taken. The families of Ram Sharif and Saudagar are struggling to survive. Both the families are landless and have no work to earn.   Ram Sharif's mother is blind and is also waiting for death. Empty pans wa have also left. Both of them have turned partially blind. Their eyes look terrible and face look much older than their age.
 
Ram Sharif aged 40-45 has four children. Three sons and one daughter, while Saudagar has 4 daughters and two sons. They sleep outside their huts even in these cold days, as their one-room huts cannot accommodate the entire family. For many days they are just surviving on meager rice given by neighbors as well as   boiling the ..river food.
 
 Matelu and Rudal are younger brothers of Ram Sharif and have left with their respective families to Kusumbe forest of Gorakhpur.  
 
Sham Devi is 50 years old widow of Naresh and a leprosy patient for the last four years. She dose not have food to eat. Most of the families here suffer from severe malnutrition and starvation.
 
No child in this village to the nearby school. Parents blame that their children never get scholarship.  Ghevna Devi used to clean the school utensils used for the purpose of cooking mid day meal but she was thrown away from the school run by the upper caste Brahmins. She was not given her salary as well as other member who used to cook. Today, there is a Gond woman cleaning the utensils and Brahmin cook at the schools. The school teachers blame on the Mushhar boys for not coming to the school while the villagers say that the Mushar boys are not given enough food to eat. They come back home empty stomach and fight. The cooking is actually granted for over 110 students though we did not find even 50 students that day. The families in the village said their children are not allowed to mix up with upper caste boys. The teacher beat them and use separate sitting during the meal. The cook gives them less food than their counterparts from the upper caste. The villagers also blame that the cook take a large part of the food home and give it to his animals.
 
 
We would like to add here that Mushhars are one of the most marginalized Dalit communities in Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar whose traditional occupation was catching rats and eating them. In fact, this community was declared denitrified during the British regime and tortured for every theft in any locality. Most of the hunger and starvation cases in the Eastern Part of Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar are coming from Mishear community, which has almost no political representation. It is very difficult to find any educated member from this community. Clear enough, the civil society and governments both have failed in bringing the plight of this community to the mainstream. Millions of rupees have been spend by the 'civil society' organizations for the 'development' of Mushahars and yet the results are disappointing.
 
It is important for the National Human Rights Commission to take action on this and ask the Uttar-Pradesh government, particularly the District Magistrate of Deoria to initiate immediate action on the same.   We suggest the following:
 
Immediate relief to Mushhar families in the Mushahar bustee of village Udayapura in Pathardeva block, Deoria.
Provide land entitlement so that people could work on their land.
Provide Indira Awas so that the Mushhar community could live
Start Sarv Shiksha Abhiayan and other educational programme according to the need of the community. There will always be discrimination when such marginalized community children go outside their village to study.
 
I hope that NHRC will take appropriate action in this regard and keep me updated on this.
 
With regards,
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Director,
Social Development Foundation,
188, Master Block,
Street No 5
Shakarpur Extension,
Delhi-110092
Tel :011-55902846, 22462528
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: www.thesdf.org
 

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