Video reveals caste is still powerful means to suppress North India's neglected groups

By A Representative

Releasing a fresh video on the plight of two individuals belonging to highly neglected communities of Indo-Gangetic plains, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, a human rights defender, describes the plight of the family of Banarasi Mushahar, who was found dead on a road side about 200 meters from his house in the morning of May 24, 2020, and of his injured friend Rampreet Nat, lying unconscious across the road.
While the village Pradhan Keshav Yadav called the police and got the panchnama done and the body of Banarasi was sent for postmortem, and Rampreet was sent to Gorakhpur medical college as he had severe head injuries, the police later made Rampreet as the main accused, and he is currently lodged in Deoria jail, says the video. Rampreet's wife is ailing and suffers from kidney ailment.
Rawat’s video reveals, the family of Rampreet has no source of income. His children suffer from malnutrition as they have nobody to lean on. His father is a 'madariwallah' and earns through begging. The family is completely landless. Both the families are suffering, but they still are good friends. Nobody believes the story of the police which claimed that the two drank tadi and fought with each other.
“I wrote about it last month when I returned from Kushinagar. I visited the village again and met villagers and family persons of both Rampreet and Banarasi Mushahar. I am sharing this documentaryin the hope that this will give one a better idea of how things are manipulated in our villages, how caste is still a powerful instrument to suppress certain communities”, says Rawat. The conversation is in simple Bhojpuri, repeated in simple Hindi.