Change We Possible : We Can

A documentary on social transformation




6 kilometers away from the Varanasi airport and near to railway line of
Pindra halt 60 families of musahar resides in southern part of Sarai
village of Pindra block of Varanasi. While entering the ghetto it is
easy to feel the changes happened in our life and development in the
ghetto. A good connecting pavement road with solar light, electricity,
re-boring of two hand pump and 19 families identified for the Lohia Awas
Yojana (Housing scheme). Says Sunita, a local resident of Sarai musahar
ghetto.



This development happened with the continuous engagement
of the community and PVCHR with timely implementation of the strategy.
They sit together and decided to bring the complaint before the open
hearing on atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SC) organized by
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Varanasi on 25 – 26 November,
2013. They made complaint to the commission all the minutes of the folk
school, community meeting and also individual testimonies.



The
musahars with the full confidence and without any fear were narrating
entire self –suffering in front of the two presiding officers of the
open hearing “First time I feel honoured when Bada Sahab (Big official)
listen my testimony very carefully.” said Mutana, a community leader.
Looking their confidence I remember the day when few bonded labours (Ram
Dayal and others) from this village came to PVCHR office along with
Mangla Prasad, Senior field activist[i]. They were very afraid and
unable to share the self – suffering. Now after 2 ½ years they have been
healed and transformed as human rights defenders; they are fearless and
now ready to face and confront their perpetrators; they are now in a
better position to reclaim and attain their rights.


Sarai is
successful example of sandwich model of our initiative. One hand on the
grass- root level breaking the culture of silence and eliminating the
fear through psycho-social and the legal support and pressure from
ground and above on the administration and state Government by National
Human Rights Commission, Supreme Court, National and International
players. If social movement are supporting most marginalized people on
grass- root level and HRIs of this country become empathetic for the
rights of most marginalized then you have model like Sarai village,
says, Lenin Raghuvanshi, Founder and CEO of PVCHR



PVCHR and
dignity initiative adopted Sarai village as torture free model village
in 2010. A village constructing a new culture which is driven by
knowledge and spirit to deal effectively with any human rights
violations and prevent any potential unrest by cultivating embracing
attitudes. The community people are now speaking more gently and
respectfully with one another. The community leaders have started taking
the initiative of organizing the community meeting. During the meeting
they are mindful of resolving disputes that are happening in their
communities and those presented for resolution. As best as possible,
they are trying to manage their own problems. On the whole, the people’s
fear of the police has greatly decreased.



The musahar ghetto of
Sarai village is bonded labour free village. This was possible with the
tireless process and community aspiration for change the community
people decided not work as bonded labour in any establishment and now
working under MNREGA Scheme. They understood the importance of education
and now they enrolled their children in near Government Primary School.
Bablu Said, “Our younger brother and sister faced discrimination in the
school but after the intervention now they got uniform and getting same
behavior like other children, Anganwadi is providing nutritious diet
and ANM is regularly visiting our ghetto for immunization”.




Mahavir, Community leader, our self-respect increase when people from
different places come to visit our places. First time Government
officials are coming to visit our ghetto[ii]. Before that no one visit
to our ghetto. We also have my own identity as our dignity. Children got
their birth registration certificate and for voter ID card form 7 was
filled by the concerned authorities. In the absence of these "identity"
cards, even the most basic rights sometimes get trespassed, resulting in
exploitation and discrimination, and even violence.[iii]

Now
the community leaders are monitoring all the schemes. We are inculcating
their knowledge and skill through continuous capacity building
workshops on various act and guideline and participation in various
programme. Now the people from different communities are coming to this
ghetto and seeking help from them. said Shiv Pratap Chaubey, Model Block
Co-ordinator, Pindra Block



Recently Fr Bernardo Cervellera,
Director of Asianews and 31 other people from Italy visited Musahar
ghetto Sarai village of Pindara, Varanasi as tribute honour to heroic
nonviolence fight of Musahar people.

The success of Sarai
village achieved by the people of Sarai is making ripple effect struggle
against poverty, injustice, caste system and torture and organized
violence as a slogan: You can


[i] http://www.pvchr.net/…/india-please-take-immediate-action-t…


[ii] https://www.facebook.com/media/set/…


[iii] http://www.thehindu.com/…/identity-spell…/article4926143.ece

http://undercustody.blogspot.in/…/ramdayal-pindara-varanasi…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXbCmFtKMwU

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…/28303836_1_br…

http://www.andyvc.com/the-dark-site-of-india/

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