The other side of elections: Pakistan's Dalit women assert for their rights by seeking space in country's politics

Krishna Kumari

By Sheshi Babu
As election results are almost declared, Pakistan is entering the new phase of governance under a new premier. Hindus comprise about 1.85% of Pakistan’s population. In fact, it has the fifth largest Hindu population in the world. Pakistan’s census separates scheduled castes from the main body of the Hindu population; thus they constitute a further 0.25% of national population. Clearly, Dalits constitute significant numbers in the population of Pakistan.
However, according to Chander Kumar, an activist, more than 85% of Hindus are Dalits. They claim to be living in the region which now called Pakistan for the last over 5000 years.
Chander Kumar has analyzed the plight of Dalits, citing work done by the Royal Mandate of the Dalit Development Programme. Several members of Dalit Programme identified the problems faced by Dalits in Pakistan, viz. caste discrimination, lack of education, technical skills, water shortage, overwhelming of the community engaged in hard labor and manual work etc.
Dalits also face hardships from the dominant Muslim community. Both Hindu upper castes and Muslim majority overlook them and do not address their problems on the political stage. Dalits in Pakistan remain in dire straits.
Dalits have tried to take on the ruling establishment, but it seems to be an arduous struggle. They have had to counter Muslim domination. They are struggling to come out of the narrow-minded of the ruling sections. The usual struggle in Pakistan against mass tyranny from those in power has continued.
Krishna Kumari became the first woman from the Kohili community of Hindus to be elected as a senator through the Pakistan People’s Party ticket. She is the second Hindu woman after Ratna Bhagwan Chawla, but first one from the Dalit community to be elected. She is a human rights activist.
In her interview with “Asia Times”, she claimed that discrimination of Dalits exists in India and not in Pakistan. She abhors being labeled a Dalit and insists that she would work for all Hindu and Muslim backward people in her area. She said, “We are not Dalit in Pakistan. These discriminations exist in India but not among us indigenous Hindus in Pakistan.”
Though there may not be stark caste discrimination as in India, Dalits in Pakistan also face problems. Since the entire Hindu community is being persecuted by the rulers, differences between castes in Hindus of Pakistan may have remained dormant. Other senators of the Hindu community also condemned the tag of 'untouchable' being labeled on her.
Meanwhile, two Dalit women, Radha Bheel and Lelan Lohar, contested as independents candidates from Mirpur Khas district of Sindh. In 2016, Bheel, along with some other members of the Dalit community, started a movement called Dalit Sujaag Tehreek (DST) to highlight the conditions of backward classes.
Contrary to Krishna Kumari views, Radha Bheel feels that the Dalit community is being discriminated against. She says that though Dalits are in a majority, tickets are given mostly to upper castes candidates. According to her, “No party focuses on the issues we are facing...”
Lohar, on the other hand, says that her real fight is with feudal lords, and points out that she was threatened and asked to withdraw her candidature, or face grave consequences. She was married at a very early age, and one of her daughters died due to ill-treatment by in-laws after getting married at a young age.
There are others Dalits too who filed papers for the recent elections. Some contested on general seats. One of them, a differently-abled, Ansoo Kohili, is inspiring. Earlier, Sunita Parmar, a mid-aged woman from Meghwar community, had filed her nomination papers to fight from a constituency in Tharparkar district. Following her, five more Dalit women have come forward to contest. They all are not satisfied with selection of candidates from upper castes.
Though the results may or may not reflect the victories of these women, their courage to contest should be appreciated. In a Muslim dominated country, Dalit women are taking up the cudgels to fight theocracy of the dominant religion as well as caste conflict in the Hindu community. Dalit power is becoming a potent force in Pakistan.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog