On the outskirts of Jaipur, in a village named Machwa, an 86-year-old Dalit widow lives in a cluster of makeshift jhuggis. The settlement is built from uneven brick walls and patched with tarpaulin sheets and rusted tin roofs. Inside, her family of nearly 30 –  sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren – sleep on thin mattresses spread directly over the hard earth. 

Santra Devi works as a midwife and her sons as daily wage construction workers, while their wives scrub floors and wash utensils in other people’s homes. Despite all of this, there are days when the family goes to sleep on empty stomachs.

Santra Devi says they ended up here after being “forced off” their 2 bighas of ancestral land after her husband died in 2013. She says the land, strategically located near the Jaipur-Jodhpur Mega Highway, was taken away by builders, politicians and cooperative housing societies – with the backing of the local administration – and that she’s been fighting to get it back ever since.  

“Jab tak dum hai, ladna hai,” she says. (As long as I have strength, I have to fight.) 

Santra Devi’s story is far from unique. A Newslaundry investigation identified at least 125 similar cases – of Dalit and Adivasi families alleging their agricultural land was taken away – in the last 60 years. All these cases have reached the Rajasthan High Court. Together, they span 637 acres of agricultural land.