How a helpless Dalit community in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is perpetually victimized and economically exploited thanks to the powerful nexus of money lenders and political masters
SADIQ ZAFAR | Caravan Daily
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]raversing through the lanes of a low-economic profiled city of Gonda in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, I recently met some protesting sweepers under the banner of Safai Karamchari Sangh. Working under the municipality of Gonda, these employees had been protesting for more than a week for their demands to be met by the district administration, ahead of Holi, a prominent north Indian festival celebrated by the upper castes.
Sitting with them and a conversation with them revealed a horrifying fact of oppression and a subject of economic subjugation. They belonged to Valmiki Samaj, a sect of the Dalit community, the most marginalized and vulnerable section of the Indian society. The union under which the protest was organized had pressing issues related to the mass subjugation in a struggling city.
The unpaid salaries of four long months for a mass which still struggles for its physiological needs in a welfare state created the fiscal imbalance in the community, enough to spark a revolt to come out and move against the administrative authorities. Their demands included the payment of unpaid overtime duties, payment of salaries as per the orders of the Court, deposition of the due insurance amount to the Directorate of Insurance Lucknow by the Municipality, permanent posting of daily wage sweepers, distribution of summer uniforms to the employees, to take back the ousted workers, payment of salaries by the 7th of each month, not to pay-cut the salaries in these days of protests and lastly, to stop the exploitation of employees.
The thing which alarmed me in these demands was the demand to stop the exploitation of the municipal employees. What was that for? This was the point of curiosity as to what exactly they meant by including the word exploitation in their demands. And then to explore the exploitative nature of the administrative authorities and the exploitation faced by the Valmiki community, I started conducting case studies, surveys and interviews. And the findings left me totally stunned and ashamed of myself. What kind of society are we living in where the nature of exploitation can be this low!
This happens during every festival which these marginalized communities celebrate that their salaries are put on hold for months before each festivity, resulting in a fiscal crisis in the community. Especially during the festival time, demands push the purchase limit of each household. But without money how can they celebrate festivals? Herein comes the role of money lenders called Mahajans who distribute money on their own rate of interest.
When the festival gets over, employees’ salaries are released by the authorities. But they never reach the hands of employees and instead go directly to the Mahajans instead. This suggests a strong bonding shared between administrative authorities and money lenders about which no one wants to investigate. The community members warn investigators not to explore this point as that can lead to troubles putting life in danger, as they are the people in power.
While investigating the issue on my own, I came across several names of powerful middlemen. It is a closely-knit corrupt system patronized and perfected by politicians and big moneybags. A big surprise was the name of the chairman of the city municipality, Nirmal Srivastava, who even before coming to power used to lend money to these subjugated people. And after coming to power he has the system in his control. Now he does the business of money lending at a large scale.
In this business of oppression, he is reportedly supported by a man called Bunty who does the distribution and collection work and heads the goons working under the Chairman Nirmal. Another name belongs to the same community, the community to which the chairman belongs, Pintu Lala who is also helped by a man known as Santosh Srivastava.
Then there is Padmeshwari, who is the most powerful of them all. He runs his own powerful clique and lends money to these people. The whole nexus of money lending reveals close connections with the right wing political party leaders. As Uttar Pradesh is one of the most communal states in the country, these people get support from the majority community during polls in the third tier of the democracy, whereas, the whole administrative set-up follows the ruling Samajwadi Party diktat.
Every tenth of a hundred rupee belongs to them. When a bank came forward to rescue employees from this burden, the whole amount released to individuals by the bank was insufficient to meet the demands of the money lenders. When they’re unable to return the money on time, exploitation starts by these Mahajans and their men, the exploitation which was raised in the demands set by the agitating workers, leading to manipulation, enslavement and oppression of the community. And often the first attack which the community faces is the assault on its women.
This money-lending business is thus an old and successfully tested system of exploitation by these Mahajans who are hand in gloves with the administrative authorities. As the heart-wrenching case study comes to conclusion, it seems the story of subjugation can never end and the burden of subjugated loan can never be waived off.
