Jhamo Manjhi s/o Bhuna Manjhi belonging to Musahar community, in Kemra village, Ariyari police station and taluk, Shekhpura district, Bihar state, was a bold and socially conscious person. He was a daily wage labourer. His wife Kismatiya Devi too helped him in the work for justice.

On September 5, 2003 Paro Devi w/o Jethan Manjhi had gone for the collection of the firewood, while her husband was on a mango tree. The culprit Sanjay Singh sprang upon her suddenly and tried to rape her but he could not. The FIR no. 128/03 was filed against Sanjay Singh. From then on he started threatening them and pressuring them to take back their FIR. On which Jhamo Manjhi told the culprit not to take back the complaint lodged. Thus, Sanjay Singh s/o Rajniti Singh, Ritesh Singh s/o Rajniti Singh and Rajniti Singh s/o late Chandrika Singh, plotted to murder Jhamo Manjhi. And as per the plan on September 8, 2003, they murdered Jhamo Manjhi.

The FIR no.131/03 under sections 341,323,324,307,302 and SC/ST POA 1989- ¾ was lodged on 9/9/2003 and the body was taken to Sadar hospital in Munger. So far only one perpetrator has been arrested and the two of the perpetrators have run away from the village. No compensation has been paid. The case is under trial.

There was a quarrel among the deceased Mahendra Manjhi, Manoj Bhagat and Arun Bhagat 10-15 days before. The Father of Manoj Bhagat Prabhudayal Bhagat did not want to share his property with his elder son Nandkishor Bhagat. And for that he and his sons Arun Bhagat and Manoj Bhagat wanted to trap Nankishore Bhagat into a murder case. Mahendra Manjhi was made the means to above purpose.

On 24.8.2003 at about 10-11pm when Mahendra Manjhi was guarding the mango groove belonging to Azim Minya, the perpetrators went to him armed with sticks and sharp edged weapons and attacked him mercilessly. The wife of the deceased Kismatiya Devi and her two sons Arjun Manjhi and Sahdev Manjhi are eye witness to that incidence.

In the next day morning, on 25.8.2003 the victims went to the police station and registered the FIR no. 170/03 under sections 302, 379, 34 IPC and the Krishna Dev Sinha, SHO took charge to investigate the case. For the cremation of the dead body of the Mahendra Manjhi the local MLA Munna Shukla gave Rs. 6100/- to the victim. No compensation is received by the victim. The Charge Sheet and the Case Diary is filed in the court. The case is pending in the court.

Phulmanti Devi (Chamar, 28 years) is an illiterate woman. She has three daughters: the first two girls, Murti Devi (20 years) and Surti Devi (15 years), are illiterate, married and living with their respective husbands; her youngest daughter Anita (12 years), who is studying in 2^nd standard in a government school, lives with Phulmanti. Phulmanti earns her livelihood by making beedis at home and selling them to a contractor.  For every 1,000 beedis she rolls, Phulmanti earns Rs.20/-. The primary occupation of the Dalits in this area is beedi manufacture and the collection and sale of firewood and dattun sticks (for teeth cleaning) from the forest.  From the age of 10 years, Phulmanti began accompanying her mother on journeys into the forests to collect dattun sticks, and then in town or in other villages for selling the sticks.  With her mother, Phulmanti travelled to distant towns like Patna and Ara, over 100 km from their home.

At the age of 13 years, Phulmanti was married to Gajo Das (Chamar) of Chaien village in the same region. She lived with him for two years and during that time gave birth to two daughters.  Phulmanti says, “My husband was a goonda and a drunkard. He would often insult and beat me.” After the birth of their first child, Gajo Das remarked, “Only whores give birth to girl children first.” Phulmanti kept silent, but thought to herself, “If he’s calling me a whore today, what will he call me tomorrow?” One day after a fight, Phulmanti took her two daughters and left her husband, returning to her mother’s place.  Her husband never came to her mother’s place to retrieve her, and Phulmanti refused to return to her husband on her own.  In this manner the two were permanently separated, though they never obtained a legal divorce.  Phulmanti and her two baby daughters lived at her mother’s house. Also living with their mother were Phulmanti’s two brothers, Huru Das and Yogender Das, both of whom were illiterate and sold dattun sticks for their livelihood.  One year after Phulmanti’s return to her natal home, in 1992, her elder brother Huru Das arranged for Phulmanti’s second marriage.  On the evening of the wedding day, the bridegroom arrived with the wedding party.  Phulmanti’s family welcomed them, fed them snacks and initial marriage rituals were performed. When it came time for the actual marriage ceremony, however, Phulmanti refused to sit in the allocated place, saying, “I will not marry him.  I do not like this boy.”  When pressured by her family, Phulmanti shouted, “If you marry me to this boy against my will I will jump into the well and drown myself!” The bridegroom and his family were embarrassed and frightened by her behaviour. The same night, they returned to their village without having completed the marriage. Two days later, Phulmanti left her village to sell dattun sticks at the Ara Railway Station many kilometres away from her village.  She was 16 years old.  Her daughters remained in the village while she travelled alone to Ara to sell the dattun.  Initially, Phulmanti went to Ara for two or four days at a time, and would return home in between.  At Ara, she slept on the railway platform.

Phulmanti says, “On the platform, a few boys and sometimes police used to harass me.  One day a Central Railway Police Force (CRPF) officer asked me about my family.  I told him that my brother ran the household and I didn’t like my sister-in-law.  He asked me to work in his home and promised to pay wages.  I agreed and began working in the CRPF camp, hoping to earn a better livelihood.  But then he and the other CRPF men raped me.  They raped me whenever they wanted to, and after a few months when I fell ill, they gave me Rs.500/- and sent me away.” Near the entrance of the Ara Railway Station, a dominant caste Kayasth man named Arun owned a tea stall (which later grew into a small restaurant).  Arun offered to let Phulmanti sit next to his tea stall to sell her dattun sticks.  Phulmanti appreciated the kindness as the location was good for her business. One evening at about 7:00 p.m., however, Arun called her into his tea shop to help him with something.  She went inside to help him, but he then forcibly seized her by the arm, forced her onto the floor, and raped her. Phulmanti was upset, but she felt dependent on Arun for the space in which she conducted her thriving dattun business, so she remained.  Gradually, over the next several months, Arun developed a sexually exploitative relationship with Phulmanti, using her when he wanted. He also brought his friends Manoj Modi (BC Bania) and Vijay Bind (MBC Bind), who began to use Phulmanti sexually as well.  For the next six years, Phulmanti lived mostly on the Ara Station platform, selling dattun sticks and enduring sexual exploitation from these men.  Three times, she became pregnant and had abortions performed. During this period she returned to her village less and less often.

Near Ara Station is a place called Sindhi Gate, where a man named Lokodas from Phulmanti’s village used to sell dattun. When Lokodas grew too old, his son Karu began selling there. Along with him were two other Chamar boys from the village, Kamdev and Bhola.  The location was very good for selling dattun, and Phulmanti wanted to shift her business to Sindhi Gate. Since the boys were not willing to share the space with her, in 1999 she arranged for some goondas to intimidate the boys to vacate the location.  The goondas beat up Kamdev, Bhola and Karu, who then returned to their village. Phulmanti began selling dattun from Sindhi Gate and kept up a brisk trade. She remained in Ara for six months at a stretch, the longest period she had spent without returning to her village at all. When she returned to Ganeshadih in 2000, a caste panchayat (Chamar community panchayat) was convened and Phulmanti was told to attend.  Karu had informed the people of the village that Phulmanti was engaged in prostitution, and the community elders had decided to punish her.  Sarpanch Narsingh Das (Chamar) convened the panchayat. In front of the community, Phulmanti was reprimanded for having loose morals and was fined Rs.1,500/-. The panchayat forbade Phulmanti to sell dattun any longer and encouraged her to remain at home and make beedis for her livelihood.  Her brother Huru Das paid the fine on her behalf, and with the amount the panchayat bought supplies for community meals (a large cooking vessel, strainer, utensils, etc.).

Despite the panchayat ruling, Phulmanti returned to Ara and resumed her business there.  When she returned to Ganeshadih in 2001, another caste panchayat was convened in which Phulmanti was again reprimanded.  This time, though, the panchayat went further and banned all women in the village from selling dattun sticks, and decreed a Rs.1,000/- fine for any woman caught selling goods outside of the village.  A document to this effect was written and signed by the village elders. After this, Phulmanti remained in the village.  She had returned from Ara with collected earnings of Rs.10,000/-, with which she arranged her two daughters’ marriages and bought a small plot of land on which she constructed a mud hut for herself.  She took up beedi making for her livelihood. In 2002, Phulmanti became pregnant.  Her brother immediately arranged another marriage for her.  She was married to a 40-year old Chamar man who worked outside the village in a factory in Calcutta.  Phulmanti lived with him for one month when he realised that she was pregnant.  She said that the child was his, but he did not believe her because the pregnancy was too advanced for just one month.  After a quarrel, Phulmanti left her husband and returned to her mother’s home.  There she gave birth to her third daughter Anita.

Also in 2002, Phulmanti’s mother and brother Huru Das died.  Thus, Phulmanti began living alone with her baby daughter in the small mud hut she had built for herself. To manufacture beedis at her home, Phulmanti had to work through contractors who provide the raw materials and sell the completed beedis.  In 2002, Phulmanti’s contractor was Muneshwar Sahu, also known as Barah (BC Teli), a dominant caste man from another village.  When Phulmanti came to him to acquire raw materials for her beedi-making, Muneshwar Sahu used his social and economic status to pressure her into a sexually exploitative relationship.  He provided her basic household supplies like pulses, rice and oil, in exchange for sex. In July 2003, this pattern of sexual exploitation became known in the village, and sarpanch Narsingh Das convened another panchayat.  In this panchayat, Phulmanti was reprimanded for having a relationship with the Teli contractor.  The panchayat fined her Rs.100/- and ordered her not to obtain raw materials for her beedi making except during daylight hours.  During the panchayat, Phulmanti grew irritated with the village elders and spoke angrily at them.  At this point Kamdev, one of the boys whom she had had beaten by goondas in Ara some years earlier, stood up and slapped Phulmanti in front of the whole community. One month later in August 2003, the village elders found an eligible Chamar man and brought him to marry Phulmanti.  The man was Kesav Das (45 years), a shoemaker by profession.  The very first day after the forced marriage, Phulmanti chased Kesav Das from her house and he never returned. As Phulmanti Devi never filed a case against any of the perpetrators, there is no police case.