Even natural calamities hurt the poor
and vulnerable more than they do the rich and well connected. Dalits in
the flood-affected areas are finding that they are last to be evacuated
or given relief.
“The administration acts through mukhias and sarpanches who mostly
belong to the forward castes and care more for their own kin and caste
fellows,” said Gopal Rishideo, a Dalit in Gwalpada. “We have nothing.
Even the snails we could have survived on have been carried away by the
flood waters.”
“The boatmen demanded bribes to give us place in the rescue boats,”
said Ram Naresh, Kumhar by caste. “Our lives meant little to them
because we are poor.”
“It is as if we do not count,” said Kamal Kant, another Dalit and daily
wage labourer. “ The well to do got away in boats when the first waves
lashed our village. The boats never came back.”
While the rich have left, the poor in villages like Murliganj and
Banmankhi in Supaul district are surviving by boiling leaves and
drinking the concoction. There is no drinking water as all the wells
are submerged.
Siddhi Ram who claims to have seen “several people drown while trying a
crossing over a ditch to the overtopped highway”, said: “Ten days
ago, when the first rescue boats came, we were denied a place in them,”
said Siddhi Ram of Murliganj. “We have seen some boats in the
area thereafter, but they never came back to our village.”
“These allegations are untrue,” said Keshav Kumar Singh, sub divisional
officer at Banmankhi. “No one is being deliberately left behind.”
“There is no discrimination,” said Pratyay Amrit, disaster management
department secretary in Patna. “We have sent out many
communiqués emphasizing that all those affected should be
treated equally. Nor have we received a single complaint.”
Meanwhile, oblivious to the sufferings of those still marooned,
Industries Minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav, who is in charge of flood
relief operations in Saharsa, has embarked on a relief camp
inauguration spree, cutting ribbons with great fanfare. “Inaugurating a
relief camp is a ridiculous idea,” observed Arun Kumar Sinha, a local
activist. “It reflects the minister’s priorities.”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=8406bc7d-1bfd-4efa-b457-636ca3cb007f
