Doing Their Bit

Kayonaaz, from Video Volunteers, narrates the work the organisation has been involved in.

WrittenBy:Video Volunteers
Date:
Article image
  • Share this article on whatsapp

Untouchability. You may think that this horrendous practice has disappeared in 21st century India, an India that is running towards socio-economic development. You may think that caste identities no longer govern people’s lives. Look around you, caste-based discrimination carries on in the most insidious ways possible – in matrimonial ads, when people won’t share a meal with a “lower caste” person, when Dalit women are sexually assaulted because they are thought of as property, when a Dalit can be fired from a government job for entering a temple, that there are separate wells for Dalits across rural India,.

subscription-appeal-image

Support Independent Media

The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.

Contribute

Did you know that it is a criminal offence to indulge in any act of caste-based discrimination or to treat someone as an “untouchable”?

Yet, the offences carry onand go almost unnoticed and unacknowledged. People who indulge in the practices are aided by government machinery. The police rarely do Dalits the courtesy of recording the caste-based atrocities they report. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes, the statutory body created to safeguard Dalit rights, is in such deep slumber that it took them two years to even acknowledge the evidence of untouchability Video Volunteers had sent them.

So yes, it looks grim on the field. Just the sheer volume of instances that our Community Correspondents find to document across India is mind-boggling. Can you imagine how many cases of Dalit atrocities, small or grievous, go unheard or unreported each year? Fighting untouchability has been at the core of Video Volunteers work – our very first campaign was “Article 17: A campaign to end untouchability”.

In the past year, we’ve spent some time re-examining the campaign to see how it can have a larger impact on a greater number of individuals and communities. Our Community Correspondents, many of whom are Dalits, have been busy documenting and fighting for the rights of their community. Despite the dangers of the job, these Correspondents tirelessly work to correct the historic wrongs faced by their people. They spend days motivating often scared communities and individuals to report cases to the police. They then spend countless hours persuading officials to take action.

For many of these activists 2013 has been a year where the tide starts to turn in their favour. It is the year when several seemingly small victories, each one hard-fought, have given cause to Dalits in many parts of the country to celebrate. In the uphill task that is putting an end to untouchability, these small victories give us hope to carry on as the storm continues to rage on.

In early 2013,a feisty young girl, Chanchal, stood up for herself from her hospital bed after surviving an acid attack and asked for your help to get justice. This had happened because she, a Dalit girl, had refused the sexual advances of some “upper caste” boys.

Community Correspondent Varsha reported her story from Patna and after 70,000 of you signed a petition, Chanchal’s attackers were put in jail – where they are to this date. Her case has been put in the “fast-track” court. The campaign resulted in getting Chanchal the first few corrective surgeries and continued medical compensation for her and her sister. Chanchal’s story also set off a chain reaction and resulted in several campaigns to stop such attacks, such as regulating acid sale in India.

When one woman, hell-bent on defying discriminatory practices, teams up with a community journalist, equally eager to bring change to his community, amazing things can happen. Lambodar’s report on the story of Pushapanjali Suna, an Anganwadi worker who was fired from her job for entering a temple is an example of this. Lambodar used every possible means he had to ensure that Pushpa was reinstated as an Anganwadi worker. From getting his media friends on board, to convincing the Child Development Programme Officer in charge of Anganwadis to visit the village, he knocked on every door. Pushpa has been reinstated as the person in charge of the village Anganwadi and has been paid the salary she was denied for two years.

As India celebrated its 66th Independence Day, the Dalits of Dandva Baddi Village in Bihar were under attack from the “upper caste” people of the village. Community Correspondent Amarjeet heard of the skirmish and rushed to record video testimonies of the affected. Constant following up with district level authorities and a 2000 people strong protest ensured that the complaints against perpetrators were lodged by the police and that the families were compensated.

Have you ever wondered why a majority of sewage workers in India work without protective gear? The association of them being “impure”is so hard-wired into society that when their rights get violated no one gives it a second thought. With few other options to earn a livelihood they brave the situation, picking up rotting waste, human excreta and cleaning sewers with bare hands and feet. For sewage cleaner Ganesh Namdeo feeling disgusted or inferior was not an option. Changing the practice however, was.

Two years of constant efforts on the part of our Community Correspondent Rohini Pawar brought four Dalit sewage workers in Walhe, Maharashtra, the protective gear they had wanted for 20 years.

India claims to be secular. How then, does an idol symbolising Hinduism find its way into a government institution? How does a person lose his job for touching it? How does no one respond to his family’s appeals for more than six months? A Dalit sweeper, Debraj Baraik, got his job back at a college in Odisha back after a video was made on his situation by Lambodar.

In a phone interview, Lamobodar told us, “I wanted the world to see the hell people are living in. It was tough to not get overcome with emotion. But we’re a country wholly caught up in caste-based chaos. Fixing this problem is a complete conundrum. We can’t indulge in emotion. The only option is to speak out. Wherever, whatever can be changed, will be changed. I will change it. With this video, I’ve made a huge difference directly on only one man’s life. But along with him, his family celebrates, our community wins. I’ve sensed my people getting tired of this constant struggle for survival. I sense a time for change. It’s exciting that I can be a part of this change, lead it, by being a Community Correspondent.”

subscription-appeal-image

Power NL-TNM Election Fund

General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.

Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?

Support now

You may also like