In Dudhela village there are 50 Rajput families and they own the vast majority of the land. The Yadavs number 35 households and own some land as well.  The Pasis are the largest Dalit community in the village and are mostly landless. Other than these three castes, there are small numbers of families of Muslims and several Backward Castes. In January 2003 dominant caste landlord Dharam Singh (FC Rajput) beat the young son of Dalit agricultural labourers Phulo Devi and Mahesh Chaudhury, alleging that the boy had eaten some peas from his field. Mahesh Chaudhury confronted Dharam Singh, saying, “Sir, if my son has done something wrong, you should have corrected him, not assaulted him.”  This infuriated the Rajput landlord and he beat Mahesh as well.  He also denied the Dalit labourers their wages, claiming that the money would go towards the debt their son had incurred by stealing his peas. Violent incidents of this sort are commonplace in Dudhela village.

Kalawati Devi (Pasi, 18 years) lives with her husband Suresh Chaudhury and his family in Dudhela village, Risiyap police station, Varun block, Aurangabad district, Bihar.  Kalawati was married to Suresh in 2002 at the age of 16 years. Though Kalawati was educated up to 6^th standard, her husband is illiterate.  She is the youngest daughter-in-law of the family. Though the traditional occupation of the family is selling toddy, they also work in the fields of a Rajput landlord named Jitendra Singh. The family also borrows money from Jitendra Singh when needed. Kalawati is good-looking, and therefore her in-laws do not allow her to venture outside the house. They require her to work only inside the house, or nearby the house. Once in the first year of Kalawati’s marriage, landlord Jitendra Singh came to her house unannounced and started talking to Kalawati.  He asked her where her father-in-law was, and said that he needed to speak to him regarding some work for him in his fields the next day.  Kalawati told him that her father-in-law was away for some work and was not at home at the moment. She told Jitendra that when her father-in-law came back she would let him know this information.  After that she turned to go inside,but Jitendra insisted on talking with her further.  He asked her if she was educated, to which she replied in the affirmative.  He wanted to continue the conversation with her, but she went inside. After this incident, Jitendra Singh began frequenting Kalawati’s in-laws’ house to have a look at Kalawati when her husband and father-in-law were away selling toddy. Whenever he did not get to see Kalawati, he would get annoyed and would ask her father-in-law where she was.  Kalawati’s father-in-law used to ignore Jitendra’s remarks, remaining absorbed in his own concerns. Kalawati’s husband Suresh sometimes travelled to Aurangabad town for daily wage labour.  His parents, meanwhile, worked in Jitendra Singh’s fields from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., when they would come home for a lunch break, and then again in the afternoon. Apparently interested in luring Kalawati out of her house, in January 2003 Jitendra Singh told Suresh’s parents that he suffered losses due to their going home for lunch and asked them to tell their youngest daughter-in-law to bring them their midday meal in the fields. “Otherwise,” he told them, “You can look for work elsewhere.” Suresh’s parents were frightened at the thought of being unemployed, as they knew that their traditional occupation of toddy tapping was only seasonal and could not provide for their livelihood.  As their other three daughters-in-law stayed at their own homes, they were forced to ask Kalawati to bring them their midday food.  For eight days, Kalawati brought them their food in the fields without event.

On the ninth day, in early February 2003, Kalawati was as usual taking food for her in-laws.  On the way to the fields lay Jitendra’s cabin.  Jitendra, anticipating her approach, intercepted Kalawati near his cabin and said to her, “Put the food in the cabin.  Your in-laws are working some distance from here and they will come here to eat today.”  Kalawati complied.  As soon as she entered inside the cabin, however, Jitendra blocked her exit and said, “If you make even a sound, I will rape you and murder you.” Kalawati ignored this, resisted him and shouted for help. Furious, Jitendra forced her onto the ground and started tearing her clothes off. Kalawati resisted by pulling his hair and even spat at him, but soon she was overpowered.  Jitendra forcibly raped Kalawati. After that Kalawati started crying and told Jitendra that she would tell people about what he had done. Jitendra replied, “Look, don’t go and make a commotion about this.  It’ll be you who gets disgraced and in any case, if you try to put a case against me, it will never get anywhere, because in this area, my family holds sway.” On hearing this Kalawati grew frightened.  Seeing her scared, Jitendra again started kissing her all over and again raped her. Afterward he said, “I like you very much.  Stay a while and let me enjoy you some more.  I’ll give you some money for this, too, don’t worry.” Kalawati has not told anyone about the rape. This was primarily due to the fact that she thought she and her family would get a bad name. She thinks that she will never get justice.

For the last ten years, Kalawati’s father-in-law’s mother (75 years) has been living on a small plot of land (two katthas, or less than 1 acre) belonging to the Irrigation Department along the roadside.  There are seven other families – belonging to Backward Castes and Scheduled Castes, including Kumhar, Lohar, Dusadh, Pasi and Chamar castes – who have also captured some land and have been living there for many years.  Kalawati’s grandmother-in-law lived there in a shed for ten years, but otherwise Kalawati’s in-laws did not cultivate the small plot of land.  In 2001, however, Kalawati’s father-in-law Moti Chaudhury (50 years) began deliberately occupying that piece of land and cultivating it.  Once they started cultivating it, they also built a small mud hut on the land and placed a charpoy (wooden cot) there for sleeping.  Kalawati and her husband stayed in the family’s home in the village, while Kalawati’s in-laws stayed in the hut on the cultivated land. They also planted some vegetables on that land and kept part of the land as a ‘kalihaan’ (a smooth place cleared of pebbles and rubbish, where one can thresh one’s wheat) during the harvesting season for their harvested crop.

The local dominant caste landlords, however, opposed the idea of a Dalit family occupying this piece of land.  In particular, dominant caste landlord Ramdev Singh (FC Rajput) was a strong opponent.  Ramdev Singh’s family is extremely prominent and influential in the village, and the panchayat mukhiya (panchayat head) is known to be their supporter.  Ramdev Singh’s three sons – Upender Singh, Dharam Singh and Bahira Singh – along with their cousin Jaganarain Singh together own 90 bighas (40 acres) of land in Nathu Bigha, adjacent to Dudhela village.  These Rajput landlords historically have taken possession of any government land or private land that becomes available.  They also wanted to dispossess Kalawati Devi and her family of their small plot of land. 

Once Kalawati’s family began cultivating the land, the Rajputs began making threatening remarks, such as “You’re determined to get beaten up, aren’t you?  Are you sure you want to occupy this land?”  The Rajput men made these comments publicly in the village, particularly to Kalawati’s mother-in-law Gemini Devi.  Kalawati’s mother-in-law sometimes replied, saying, “Yes, we’re occupying the land; where else should we go?”  The Rajputs also threatened Kalawati whenever she was seen on the plot of land. One morning in December 2003, at about 7:00 to 8:00 a.m., the Rajputs came to the plot of land in two tractors, armed with weapons.  On seeing the Rajputs armed and clearly intending to attack them and destroy their home, Kalawati’s in-laws fled.  Kalawati, however, remained there and challenged the Rajputs. The attackers – Upender Singh, Dharam Singh, Jaganarain Singh, Halender Singh and Bahira Singh – forcibly seized hold of Kalawati, dragging her about.  As Kalawati resisted them and shouted at them not to attack her home, the Rajput men manhandled her.  Fearing rape, Kalawati then managed to free herself from the assailants and fled the scene.  The Rajputs then destroyed Kalawati’s family’s mud hut and looted their possessions.  In their two tractors, the Rajputs rode off with the Dalit family’s thatched roof, the charpoy and household items looted from their hut.

Immediately after the incident, Kalawati’s in-laws went to Risiyap police station and narrated the incident to Station Officer Rajesh Kumar Yadav (BC Ahir, 40 years).  Station Officer Rajesh Kumar Yadav registered the case and agreed to conduct an inquiry.  He assured Kalawati’s family that he would take care of the issue, saying, “Go ahead and grow your vegetables, eat, lay the kalihaan for threshing, there’s no problem at all!” Accordingly, the Dalit family resumed their visits to the land and again planted vegetables and cleared land for the kalihaan.  In response, the Rajputs went to the police and had a case registered under sec. 107 Cr.P.C., requiring both parties, where tension exists between two communities, to keep the peace.  When Kalawati and her family approached the police, the police advised them to compromise with the Rajputs, as the land ultimately belonged to the Irrigation Department.  For six months Kalawati’s family attended the court dates for the sec. 107 Cr.P.C. proceedings, but the Rajputs did not attend court even once.  The court therefore took no action, and Kalawati and her family were unable to resume their cultivation in peace. The Rajputs’ cavalier attitude toward the court proceedings suggested to Kalawati and her family that the Rajputs had come to an extra-legal understanding with the police. The local mukhiya, Krishna Dubey (FC Brahmin) supported the Rajputs and told Kalawati’s family that if they dropped the police case and abandoned the land, he would give them a house under the Indira Awas Yojana government scheme.  Finally, under pressure from the mukhiya, perpetrators and the police, Kalawati’s family agreed to a “compromise” in April 2004, saying that they would not reconstruct any buildings on the disputed land.  The police, however, assured them that they could continue to cultivate the land.  Accordingly, not long after the “compromise” in April 2004, Kalawati’s family planted vegetables on the land.  Immediately, though, Ramdev Singh and his sons destroyed the vegetable crop and planted a crop of daal there instead.

Shortly thereafter, Ramdev Singh and his sons arranged for a family of their own caste – Raj Kumar Singh (FC Rajput, 40 years) and his family – to occupy the disputed land.  With Ramdev Singh’s support, Raj Kumar Singh and his family built a brick house with a thatch roof on the land.  Meanwhile mukhiya Krishna Dubey reneged on his promise of providing an Indira Awas Yojana house for Kalawati’s family.

Kalawati and her in-laws live in terror of the dominant caste Rajput perpetrators.  Ramdev Singh and his family are notorious for having murdered two men in the past – one Rajput and one Backward Caste.  On 1 August 1999 Ramdev Singh murdered Rajput Indradev Singh, but escaped prosecution by promising the victim’s son Rs.2 lakhs compensation, which was never given.  One day in 2002, Ramdev Singh was abusing a Backward Caste carpenter whose cattle had strayed into their fields when another Backward Caste man intervened.  Furious, Ramdev Singh shot the interventionist dead.  Despite these two murders, Ramdev Singh and his family continue to move about freely about the village.  Indeed, the impunity enjoyed by the Rajputs has emboldened them to the point that they raise the murders to threaten Kalawati and her family.  During the course of the land dispute, the Rajputs threatened Kalawati’s mother-in-law Gamini Devi, saying, “We committed two murders and nothing happened to us.  If we do something to you also, nothing will happen to us.  We have got our people at every place – court, thana [police station] and district office – and who have you got?  Nobody” Gamini Devi says, “I ran up and down between Risiyap [police station] and Aurangabad [court] and nothing happened.  Finally I gave up.” The Rajput perpetrators have never been arrested or punished.  The case never progressed to court, and the “compromise” ended in the Rajputs occupying the land.  Fed up with the failure of the government machinery to provide justice at every step, Kalawati and her family have given up hope of obtaining justice.

Chintakula Tanesha s/o Mallaiah, Lingmaiah(brother) BC gouds Pocharam (v), Ibrahimpatnam(m) Ranga Reddy (d). Gyra Anuradha d/o Anjaiaj, age 14yrs, Sc Madiga, studying 8^th class Pocharam (v), Ibrahimpatnam, Ranga Reddy dist. Thanesh s/o Mallaiah , BC gouds, studied till 7^th class. His house is in the same lane of Anuradha house. When she entered into 7th class he started writing letters to me. She used to tear all the letters, which he wrote to her. Tanesha relative who stays in Gungal (v) came to her and made friend ship with her and started talking to her. Tanesha only sent her to Anuradha. Still he is writing letters to her and sends letters with someone or the other. When she entered into 8^th class she started writing letters to him.  He also made a tattoo of ‘A’ on his arms, by that he started loving her, “Once he bought bangles and dolls to mefrom Bugga Jatara”. On 25-01-04 when she went to toilet there he came to me and said, “Your family and my family will not allow us to marry. We will go to Hyderabad”; by saying this he took her to nearby field and raped her .In the evening at 5.00pm they walked till Kagara and took Hyderabad bus.

When they reached Meerpet Tanesha sister’s house, Tanesha sister said “my brother does not have mind, what happened to yours, go home.  Then she said she would not go home alone we have come together and we will go together. After giving us meals she was kept in a room. There also Tanesha raped her.  On 26-12-04, they went to Tanesha another sisters house but auto there they kept her in a room on 26, 27, and 28^th Dec’ 2004. She also abused her severely. Anuradhas family members by searching them came to Tanesha sisters house also with a doubt that both would be there. But Tanesha sister said “they did not come here. On 27-12-04 also my family members asked about us but she did not reveal that they are here. There is of no use. In the village, the family members of Anuradha threatened Tanesha brother Lingamaiah regarding her daughter. You bring my daughter here otherwise you have to face severe consequences. By hearing this word, Tanesha relative Ashoka went to Hyderabad and said to her “you are minor girl. You will get married to tanesha after 4 months in Yadagiri gutta till then you wait saying this on 28-12-04, at 9.00 in the morning, they have boarded me in Hyderabad-Nalgonda bus, and left me in Mangalipalle gate. From there Ashok got down at Seriguda gate and went to my parents and said that she was coming. My family members took me and kept me in another village. When the villager elder asked Tanesha, the accused, “what did you do” Tanesha said arrogantly, “Do whatever you want to do you Madiga people won’t do anything”. While Gyra Anuradha and her parents were walking on the road every one (Tanesha’s relatives and BC community people) used to abuse them by their caste name. “Your daughter’s character is not good what can we do. Then Anuradha’s brother got very wild and there was heated discussion and pulled Lingmaiah collar and dragged in the discussion. Taking this as opportunity Lingmaiah, Ashok lodged a complaint on 07-01-04. When police came to arrest Anuradhas brothers, they escaped and approached DBSU.

Then with the help of DBSU they went to Pushpakumar Sub-Inspector of police, Ibrahimpatnam, Ranga Reddy. On    08-01-04 Gyra Anjaiah s/o Ramaiah, Pocharam , Sc madiga, 45 yrs.  Her daughter G. Anuradha, Chintakula Tanesha s/o Mallaiah , BC goud on 25-12-04 at 9.00pm when Anuradha went to toilet. There he made her believe that he will marry her if she comes to Hyderabad. Then he took her to Hyderabad. After three days he brought her to the village. On receiving complaint and medical reports she was sent to Osmania, bought the clothes. The case was booked under 6/2004, section I.P.C 366,376, Sc/ST Act 3(1)(xi) 3 (1)(xii) & 3(2) (ii), 3(2)(v) Sc/ST Act 1989 a case has been booked. CI, DCP, ACP, CP a copy to DCP Enquiry. The accused is not arrested release. Victim received compensation of Rs. 200,000/-. Case is pending in Special Court. 

Shivkumari Devi (Dusadh, 45 years) was married to Shambhu Paswan at the age of 13 years. She lives with Shambhu and her in-laws in Rahulnagar village, Sori panchayat, Mali police station, Nabinagar, Aurangabad district, Bihar. She has five children: two daughters and three sons, all of whom are married. The eldest, Ram Kumar (36 years), completed his BA, while the next two sons, Deo Kumar (34 years) and Pramod Kumar (30 years) passed 8^th and 9^th standard respectively. All three sons work together in a private factory in Delhi.  Shivkumari Devi’s daughters are Kalawati Devi (25 years), who studied up to 5^th standard; and Lilawati Devi (20 years), who is illiterate. 

For the first five or six years after Shivkumari’s marriage, she lived at peace with her husband and in-laws.  They gave her a great deal of love and affection when she was the only daughter-in-law of the house. When Shambhu’s younger brother was married, however, the in-laws’ attitude toward Shivkumari changed. They favoured the younger daughter-in-law, and began to treat Shivkumari as an inferior. They began neglecting Shivkumari, particularly by not giving her food to eat. One afternoon, Shivkumari asked her younger sister-in-law if there was any food prepared in the house. “No, there is nothing left,” the sister-in-law replied, lying.  Actually, Shivkumari knew that her sister-in-law had prepared food for herself and stored it away. “So what will you eat, then?” Shivkumari asked. “I’ll starve with you,” she replied. “Why don’t you just make four or five rotis instead, and we’ll both eat them,” Shivkumari suggested. Shivkumari had just come from a full day of weeding in the fields as an agricultural labourer. Due to working in the hot sun all day, she was exhausted and feeling unwell.  At that time, her mother-in-law Janki Kuer entered the room. Shivkumari said to her, “There is food for everyone, but is there nothing left for me?”

Her mother-in-law sharply replied, “Do you think you have a servant here who’s going to cook for you?  Go on, if you want to eat, cook it yourself.” Shivkumari said, “I have been a servant for all of you. Now this young daughter-in-law has come to the house; can’t she serve some of us a little bit?” “I’m not going to listen to talk like this,” the mother-in-law replied, “If you want to go on living here, then do so. Otherwise, you can get out and live alone.” Saying this, the mother-in-law then began beating Shivkumari Devi and physically drove her out of the house. Shivkumari’s husband did nothing to help his wife, but simply accepted what his mother was doing. Shivkumari’s husband and sons have always worked outside the village. Over time, all three of the sons began working in a factory in Delhi. This enabled them to save money and they managed to buy about 2½ bighas (just over 1 acre) of land in the village in 1980.  Besides cultivating their own field, Shivkumari’s in-laws also worked as sharecroppers on the land of other farmers. They sharecropped 4 bighas of land from Ram Vilas Singh (FC Rajput). In addition, whenever work was available, they worked as daily wage agricultural labourers on other people’s land. Shivkumari’s in-laws are an extremely hard-working family.

There are 13 families of the Dusadh/Paswan community in the village.  The Rajputs, who are socially, economically and politically dominant, generally treat the Dalits as inferior.  The relative economic strength of Shivkumari’s marital family attracted the displeasure of the Rajputs of the village.  The Rajputs particularly disliked that the Dalit family had purchased land and become cultivators, rather than remaining as landless agricultural labourers. One day Shivkumari’s four goats strayed into the fields of Triveni Singh (FC Rajput).  Triveni Singh, a retired public servant, was known in the village as a prominent and powerful landlord.  Seeing the goats in Triveni’s field, Shivkumari went to retrieve her goats.  Seeing her, Triveni Singh started to abuse Shivkumari, saying, “Is this your grandfather’s field, cunt? Get your goats out of here, you lose cunt!” Shivkumari took her goats and came away quietly. She felt that if she uttered a word or questioned him for abusing her, he would abuse her more and perhaps beat her as well. Intimidated by the perpetrator’s power in the community, she kept quiet about the incident and did not approach anyone for justice.

There is a certain Rajput landowner in the village, Bilender Singh (40 years), son of Kameshwar Singh, who will not allow any Dalits to cut grass from the mud dividers in his field, even if the grass dries up and goes to waste. He has a reputation in the village for speaking with contempt toward all Dalits and always using derogatory language.  Bilender Singh, who has no job outside of cultivation, owns 50 bighas of land in his father’s name.  Because the Rajput community generally was displeased with Shivkumari’s family owning land, Bilender Singh was determined to spoil the crops in the Dalit family’s field. As he controls the borewell from which Shivkumari must take water to irrigate her fields, he was in a position to prevent her from irrigating her crop.  On this point there is constant tension.  Whenever Shivkumari confronts Bilender Singh on the water issue, he abuses her, saying, “Cunt! Who is going to give you water, you lose cunt?” Bilender Singh ultimately wants Shivkumari to sell her land to him. For a long time, he frequently harassed Shivkumari, alleging that she had encroached on his land and insisting that he would have his land measured and reclaimed the encroached portions.  Then in 1999, when Bilender Singh did get his land measured, it turned out that some of Shivkumari’s land was in fact in Bilender Singh’s possession. Bilender Singh, though, refused to part with the excess land, and always repeats the accusation that Shivkumari has encroached on his land. Routinely, Bilender Singh threatens Shivkumari, saying, “If you don’t stay in your place, you may get beaten up.”

One afternoon in September 2003, Shivkumari’s water buffalo strayed into the fields of Bilender Singh. By chance, Bilender Singh happened to pass by at that time. Coming up behind Shivkumari, he seized her by the plait of her hair and violently threw her to the ground.  There were bricks and brick fragments lying on the ground in that area. Because she was thrown on the ground where the bricks lay, her head was badly cut and blood began to flow from her scalp.  Having flung her to the ground, Bilender Singh started shouting at her in degrading language, “Cunt-fucker!  Used cunt!  I’ll shove a bamboo rod in your cunt and rip you open!”

One day in November 2003, Shivkumari went to the fields of Bilender/Kameshwar Singh to pluck vegetables.  Ravindra Singh (FC Rajput), a neighbour and friend of Bilender Singh, happened to pass by and started verbally abusing her, saying, “You think you can pluck vegetables here?  I’ll put a sickle in your cunt!”  He then seized Shivkumari by the arm and forcibly dragged her out of the vegetable field.  Picking up stones and hard clods of earth, he hurled them at her. One stone broke her elbow. Terrified, Shivkumari said nothing, but picked up a handful of the vegetables she had gathered and walked home with difficulty.  At home, Shivkumari thought to herself, “I am facing this kind of atrocity just for picking a few vegetables.  That bastard Ravindra Singh humiliated me and to maintain my dignity I did not say anything in return.” Shivkumari had no social, economic or political power, while Bilender Singh, Ravindra Singh and Triveni Singh are powerful, dominant men of the village. Hence, Shivkumari did not attempt to register a case against any of the Rajput culprits. Moreover, Bilender Singh has a history of beating up the Dalit women of the village. 

Vibhisan Paswan, 26, s/o Sriram Paswan belonging to Dusad (SC) in Nuanw village, Krishnabrahma police station, Baxar district was beaten for entering the worship place. He is bold in nature. He earns his livelihood by daily wage. The village is dominated by the non-Dalits.

On 03/11/2003 in the village Nuanw, there was a Mahayagya (Hindu worship ceremony), organized by the non-dalits in honour of the goddess Laksmi Narayana. The Hindu priest accompanied with the non-dalit Vijendra Singh had gone to the dalits for the collections and asked them to participate in the worship ceremony. The dalits were pleased by this and contributed Rs.101 – 501. The non-Dalits were collecting the contributions from the vehicles passing by from the road. Dalits opposed that but were not heeded. On the day of worship, again the non-dalits were doing the same on the road and that day a vehicle from Sudha Dairy was coming and the driver with the assistant told them that they were asked for the contribution daily. On that the collectors got enraged and beat them thoroughly. Somehow the assistant managed to escape and informed the police. The police came and arrested some of the accused and took them to the jail. Vijendra Singh, the head of the community went to the jail to their rescue but he was not successful. He got angry and came back to the place of worship. He saw Vibhisan Paswan in the worship place. He abused him by his caste name and started beating him. On seeing that, other non-dalits joined him and beat the victim. The victim was unconscious and was taken to a hospital in Dumrawn. When he came back to consciousness the FIR no.201/03, was registered under the sections 147, 149, 341, 342, 307, 504, 384, 120 IPC and 3 (1)( v),(x),(xiv) of SC/ST (PoA) Act., then and there.  Kiran Paswan was the inquiry officer. No compensation has been granted. The charge sheet is presented in the court and the case is on trial in the court. No accused has been arrested so far.