In the winter of 2012, Asha Devi, 47, left Mumbai for her native village in Uttar Pradesh바카라s Jaunpur district with her ailing husband, Rajendra Prasad Gautam, and seven children. Whatever little the couple had saved from their meagre earnings while working as mason and labourer at construction sites over the years, was soon exhausted on Gautam바카라s healthcare. They did manage to build a hut on a small plot of land given by Gautam바카라s brothers at Bari Ahiroli village. But barely four months after their return, Gautam lost the battle against tuberculosis, leaving her to face life바카라s struggles alone.
In the ensuing years, Devi withstood many uphÂeavals, clinging to hope. She did menial jobs and toiled away at village farms all through the day, while her eldest daughter, Renu, who was only 13 then, looked after the kids at home. But in spite of her back-breaking labour, the Dalit family continued to live in penury. Four years ago, a botched cataract surgery at a charity medical camp left her blind in both eyes. In 2019, one of her daughters, aged 23, died of hypothermia. Â
As if the world of Asha Devi wasn바카라t dark enough, her three teenage daughters바카라Preeti, 17, Arti, 15, and Kajal, 12바카라were found dead, their body parts scattered on a railway track, at least 14 kms from their house, on the intervening night of November 18-19. Villagers, local police and some news repÂorts claimed the girls were driven to 바카라mass-suicide바카라 to escape acute poverty and starvation. Asha Devi, however, refuses to believe this theory. 바카라They could never have taken this step. My daughters were brave and swabhimaani (self-respÂecting). They would eat whatever was available at home and never borrow even salt from anyone,바카라 Devi told Outlook, sitting on a worn-out charpoy at her home. While speaking, she was incÂonsolable and broke down several times. Asha Devi has two more daughters. One of them, Jyoti, 21, lives with her late father바카라s sister in a nearby village and the other, Renu was married off in July this year.
The basti in which Asha Devi lives is a cluster of dank, dark and cramped huts, barring the exceptions of a few incomplete concrete structures, inhÂabited by Dalits. It represents a gut-wrenching picture of human lives held hostage by economic deprivations and misgovernance in the rural hintÂerland. Government welfare schemes don바카라t seem to have made any difference to the life of the needy and deserving people here. Their benefits have been distributed as determined and dictated by a combination of factors such as admiÂnistrative inertia, corruption and caste considerations. Mostly illiterate, the landless and destitute villagers seemingly remain occupied with only one purpose and challenge in their daily struggle for survival바카라arranging the next meal.
State of affairs
Incidentally, Uttar Pradesh is the third poorest state in India with nearly 38 per cent of its total population living in chronic poverty, according to the Niti Aayog바카라s recently-released first Multidimensional Poverty Index report. Notwithstanding tall official claims regarding distribution of subsidised ration to the poor and the success rate of welfare schemes, the relief promised under poverty mitigation programmes remains elusive for the impoverished residents of Dalit Basti. Entries in Asha Devi바카라s ration card and her immediate neighbours corroborated allÂegations that the residents hadn바카라t received subsidised ration after August 2021.
Portraits of grief (From left) Ganesh, the brother of the three dead sisters; their mother Asha Devi, and elder sister Renu at their house in Bari Ahiroli.
Shriram Verma, the kotedar, a shopkeeper licÂensed to sell subsidised rations, said, 바카라It becomes difficult to make entries on every ration card during the rush hours as I handle everything single-handedly. So I just take thumb impressions while distributing ration.바카라 Asserting that ration cardholders have been getting regular supply, Verma clarified, 바카라Only those villagers who have an Aadhaar card are entitled to subsidised ration.바카라 The villagers also complained that most of the poor families didn바카라t have Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards. And those families that had Above Poverty Line (APL) ration cards, they said, the names of some members had been omitted.
An old widow, Anara broke down and started crying, describing her economic problems. Her only son passed away on October 6 this year. His widow, who is barely in her mid-twenties, lives in a small hut that doesn바카라t even have a door. She too has been striving for a BPL card for her three daughters. 바카라If a social audit is conducted in our village, 80 per cent of the beneficiaries of government schemes and BPL ration card holders would turn out to be non-deserving,바카라 alleged Ankit Kumar Singh, a local resident and son of a former village head. Â
On the incomplete dwelling units allotted under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in the Basti, Rakesh Patel, the village Pradhan, said, 바카라The beneficiaries have received the money promised under the scheme. But they have spent it elsewhere.바카라 Patel, who became village head six months ago, said that he has brought the discrepancies in ration cards to the notice of the food and civil supplies department. 바카라We have requested the department to enhance the quota of monthly ratÂion supply for the panchayat,바카라 he added, admitting that the family of deceased girls didn바카라t have an Antyodaya ration card. He also concurred with villagers that wages were long overdue to local workers who were engaged under MGNREGA.
Near the house of Asha Devi, a middle-aged woman, Jyoti Devi, lives with her teenage disabled son who has survived polio. A beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, she showed her cooking gas cylinder, which she said was empty for the last over four months. She took the reporter round the Basti, showing dry cow-dung cakes, which the villagers use for cooking purposes. 바카라There are times when we don바카라t find even a single grain at our home. We have to sleep on an empty stomach. At present, we have two sacks of paddy seeds. We manually thrash them and cook rice for meals. Occasionally, we get the supply ration. This is how we survive,바카라 said Devi, who is a BPL card holder, alleging that the names of only five family members have been written on the card instead of nine. Just like Asha Devi, she too got a dwelling under PMAY. While Asha바카라s incomplete housing unit doesn바카라t have a roof, the incomplete concrete structure built in Jyoti바카라s name near her hut hardly resembles a house.
Other than one or two bags of rice or wheat, residents of the Dalit Basti hardly have any other possessions in their shanties. Referring to Asha Devi바카라s plight, Ram Dular, 70, another resident said, 바카라The condition of the entire basti is the same. As we don바카라t own agricultural land or any other assets, we are always in need of food ratÂiÂons. Our boys go to cities in far-off places to make a living and feed others at home. During the corona pandemic most of them had to return home.바카라
All that remains (left) A slipper lies by the side of the railway track where the mutilated bodies of the three sisters were found; and Dalit women of the village.
Too little, too late
Soon after the tragedy of the three girls was reported, several political leaders from various parties started visiting the girls바카라 family. Help in the form of food-rations, financial assistance and benefits of government welfare schemes started pouring in. A day after the girls were cremated, the family said, the village head provided them with a refilled cooking gas cylinder. They had received the LPG connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. The kotedar also provided them two bags of rice and wheat, weighing 50 kg each, along with 3 kg dal, 2 litres mustard oil, one kg besan, 5 kg potatoes and spices.
On November 23, a police team led by the local DSP visited the family to ensure they had enough to eat. A little later, a team of medical staff visited the house and administered the first dose of corona vaccine to all members of the family. The local administration has decided to provide two patches of 바카라agricultural land바카라 measuring around 0.75 acre to the family. Ironically, one plot is wetland and the other is arid and rocky. Since the promised pieces of land are surrounded by the farms of the Thakur community, the family rued, it was almost impÂossible for him to take possession and cultivate it because of caste tensions in the area.
Ramesh Chandra Mishra, the local MLA, also promised to complete construction of the housing unit provided under PMAY. Within hours, the required construction material that included sand, six cement bags, 48 stone slabs and five iron beams was dumped near Devi바카라s hut. While the family already has two water handpumps installed in their courtyard, the legislator gave them one more.
The irony is not lost on Devi. A few months ago, her hut got an electricity connection. 바카라I told them to complete our house first and then give us power connection. No one paid heed,바카라 she said, pointing towards an electric meter on the front mud wall of her humble house. 바카라For years, I kept pursuing officials for a BPL card...But now, when my daughters are gone, everyone wants to help me,바카라 Devi added.
Amid the rush to help the family, the lone brother of the girls, Ganesh, 19, recalled the hardship and humiliation he faced to complete the legal and last rites of his sisters. Because of their caste, the aggrieved family members and relatives alleged, they were subjected to humiliation at every step바카라from post-mortem, transportation of the body bags, to the cremation of the three bodies on a single pyre.
Recalling their horrific experience at the Jaunpur district hospital바카라s mortuary, Mahendra, an uncle of the deceased girls, said, 바카라Those who conducted the post-mortem kept delaying it. On sensing that we didn바카라t have money, a policeman gave me a few hundred rupees and asked me to request them with folded hands. I did so and apologised to them for being poor. And finally, the matter settled on four bottles of hooch (local illicit liquor) and Rs 600,바카라 he told Outlook. Â
Crematorium workers too initially asked for Rs 5,000 for each pyre and Rs 1,500 extra to burn the bodies. But Ganesh said he had money only for one pyre. It was only after much pleading that the caretakers allowed Ganesh to burn the three bodies바카라what was left of them바카라all in a single pyre. Like in life, there was no dignity left for the girls in death too. Â
Unanswered questions
Till Sunday, November 28, the police hadn바카라t regiÂstered an FIR in the case. The police picked up a boy from the Basti, who would allegedly talk to Preeti, the eldest of the three girls, over the phoÂne. When Badlapur police reportedly reached the railway track, his name was flashing on the phone screen that was lying near Preeti바카라s mutilated body. Police let him go after a few hours of questioning. He works as a labourer in a factory in Delhi and had come home nearly two weeks ago.
바카라The post-mortem report stated that the deaths occurred when the girls got crushed after coming in front of a train (03257 Jansadharan Express which was on way to Delhi from Danapur, Bihar) that was passing through. We didn바카라t recover any suicide note from the spot,바카라 a senior police officer at Badlapur told Outlook on the condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorised to discuss the matter with the media. 바카라The reasons behind the suicide have to be investigated by the Maharajganj police station as the village of decÂeased girls comes under the jurisdiction of that police station,바카라 the police officer maintained. At Maharajganj police station, however, a sub-inspector said that the incident was to be probed by the Badlapur police instead as the incident took place in an area that falls in their jurisdiction. 바카라We haven바카라t registered an FIR as the family didn바카라t ask for it,바카라 the police officer at the Badlapur police station said. Â
Ramesh Kumar Gautam, a local activist of the Bhim Army, and the brother of the girls, Ganesh called out the police claims, asserting, 바카라On November 24, our deputation visited the Badlapur police station. We submitted an appÂlication, requesting a thorough investigation into the matter so that it could become clear whether it was a mass suicide or murder. There is a stronger likelihood of a crime involved in these deaths. But the police have not registered our complaint so far.바카라
As the grief-stricken family refused to buy the mass-suicide theory, they wondered why the girls chose to end their lives at a place about 14 kms from their house. 바카라It is a subject of doubt that a single thought kept playing on the minds of all three girls while they were lying on the railway tracks. At least one of them could have got frightened and ran away on hearing the rumble of a train approaching them,바카라 said Virendra Pratap, 34, a close relative.
Renu and Jyoti showed the groceries stacked in one portion of the hut. They also pulled out brand new sandals and shoes from a packet, assÂerting the family wasn바카라t facing any financial distress. The brother spoke about a smartphone that he claimed Preeti had gifted him a few months ago. However, he didn바카라t have pictures of any of his sisters on his phone.
A few days before they disappeared, the girls would spend several hours uprooting tree stumps near the village border and bringing them home to ensure they had enough firewood to cook and keep their house warm this winter. Pointing towards the stack of stumps, their eldest sister Renu asked, 바카라Why would they stock this wood if they were thinking of suicide?바카라 Before leaving the house on November 18 evening, Asha Devi interjected, 바카라they had cooked 바카라mooli ki sabzi바카라 and baked rotis for everyone at home.바카라
Maintaining that the girls usually travelled on their bicycle, a family member said, 바카라That eveÂnÂing, they didn바카라t take the bicycle along. And this is hard to believe that the girls reached the FattuÂpur railway crossing on Sultanpur rail section on foot during pitch dark hours as all the means of public transportation go off the road by then.바카라
For the grieving family, many questions remain unanswered. But they are not sure if they will get answer to any of them.
By Ashutosh Sharma in Jaunpur
