Rohtas Rant

[dalit kids at the local Utthan kendra- tuition facilities]

Sitting down early in the morning after a night that’s been particularly difficult – power cuts, hot stillness at 46 degrees Celsius, mosquitoes – that’s what Sasaram, the district headquarters of Rohtas has to offer to its ordinary citizens. I’m housed in the comparatively better quarters. The guest rooms at the local parish which has a Catholic church, a social work centre, and three enterprising Jesuits who are part of a team that has brought immense positive change to the poor. More about this later.

[No longer in a mood to take things lying down, three men shot from my moving vehicle]

I’m continuing my study of the impact of the Bihar Government’s ‘Utthan’ programme, and the first day at Rohtas has been a let down. The Bihar Education Project Council office appears to be the epicenter of utter chaos. A defective filing system, missing records, lower officials in a constant state of being shuffled around, and a distinctive aura that indicates that the ancient caste diktats of Manu run in the veins of the local Rajput population.

[Social attitudes don't change as dalits continue to live in squalor]

This is the place where the confrontation between the Reds [the ‘Maoist’ combine that presumably protects the lower castes] and the Private Upper caste ‘armies’ [funded by contractors many of whom belong to the illegal stone quarrying mafia] is continual. Ergo, the efforts of the Nitish Kumar government to provide special educational inputs to the Dalits is seen as a betrayal of sorts, and the local Rajputs in the teaching cadre, while paying lip service to the programme, are ideologically opposed to it. Hence, one comes across chaos.

A District programme officer whose helpless because the financial and logistic records are a mess. A school where the headmaster refused to allow the low caste children into the school. Some of the high caste teachers with political connections openly ridicule the idea of elevating the labouring castes.

Such is life in the dry hills of Rohtas.