Rallying for the Right to Food of Mahadalits in Bihar

Under the Caritas India programme SUPOSHAN, a rally on the Right to Food was organized across 10 villages, with a high concentration of Mahadalit communities, from 20-24 August 2019, in Munger district of Bihar. The rally was kicked off from the Mahadalit hamlets passing through Village Presidents’ residences various Fair Price Shops under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

The rally covered Musahar hamlets, namely Biranchi Tola, Masudan tola, Dariyapur, Chandwali Asthan, Shyampur, Galimpur, Raghunathpur, Manghgaye, Dariyapur, and Gobbadda.

Members of the mothers’ collectives and community development collectives co-designed the rally to make it effective and meet the objective of creating awareness among the people and the duty bearers on high malnutrition among Mahadalit communities. Slogans were raised by members of adolescent collectives and handbills were distributed.

The immediate result of the people marching on foot was that the president of village Gobadda, in Haveli Kharagpur block, assured the people of surveying the villages to assess the households lacking the TPDS registration, and ensure their coverage under the scheme by the end of the year; have a PDS shop in their hamlets, with regular and timely delivery of the ration. While giving out the assurance, he recognized the leadership of the women in this rally. A contingent of adolescent girls from Roshni Ki Toli shared about the dissatisfactory status of mid-day-meal in their schools and asked for improvement and compliance to the food menu. He assured taking up the matter with the School Management Committee, as the members reached out in the rally also included the tola sewaks and schoolteachers.

“Roshni Pariyojna ke madhyam se gaon me kiye ja rahe pahal se ek din in Musharo ke jeevan badal jayega aur ye bhi samaj ke mukhya dhara se jud jayenge” (With the efforts being made under Roshni programme, the Musahar community will also get mainstreamed in the society one day, surely), said the village president. Sister Anjela, In-charge of Bihar Dalit Vikas Samiti, Munger, a partner organization, addressed to young members of Roshni ki Toli invoking Swami Vivekananda’s call to arise and awake and stop not until the goal is reached; the goal to reclaim human dignity for the Mahadalit communities.

The rally did not just bring the community members, the adults, and children, women, and men together to claim their rights, but also sent out a message of self-awakening to the local administration and fair price shop dealers. The community collectives would engage in developing a follow-up plan for tracking the assurances given by their village presidents to ensure actions are taken to address issues of malnutrition among the Mahadalit communities in Bihar.