Struggling for the rights of landless Dalits by Shanti Devi Chamar

Early years
Photo ©: Deependra Bajracharya and the team

Shanti Devi Chamar’s father, a landless farmer, moved to Mumbai, India in the hope of a better future. This is where Shanti Devi was born.
Shanti’s father worked in a textile mill, but life did not get better. After he got sick, it became hard for the family to make ends meet and they returned to Kapilvastu. Her father died after a few days upon their return, when Shanti Devi was just 14 years old. At her mother’s insistence, Shanti Devi went to study at a school in the village. Her uncles disapproved of this, thinking that education would ruin her character. And before she could complete her education, her mother married her off to Patiram Prasad Chamar. Although Shanti Devi was not happy with the marriage, she agreed - mainly for her mother’s sake, living in a conservative Madhesi society.
Life after marriage was not easy for Shanti Devi. They were poor and her status in her new family was next to nothing because of the little dowry her mother was able to afford. Frustrated and sad, she wrote a letter to her mother asking her to come see the life she was living. Her mother promised to help her and was able to give her a small amount of money, and in turn Shanti Devi was able to buy some land, build a two-room house and complete her schooling.
She started working in the fields and her crops produced good yields despite her having little practical experience at farming. Soon, news spread and people came to see her work and learn from her skills. Although she had started contributing to the family financially, she still had little say in important matters.

A women’s empowerment project

Such was the plight of Madhesi Dalit women, one which Shanti Devi wanted to change. The right opportunity knocked on her door in 1998 when a women’s empowerment project was launched in her village, and the authorities were looking for educated women to serve as president and secretary. She expressed her interest, raising many eyebrows, and later became the secretary of the women’s group, through which she launched women’s and children’s education programs.
This marked the beginning of her social and political journey. She helped to open the first school in her village in 2000, the Shree Saraswati Community School, with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), paving the way for another 20 primary schools. She served as treasurer of the School Management Committee, She also was elected member of the District Level School Support Committee. Her political journey began when she was elected ward member in the local elections on the Nepali Congress ticket. Despite her party membership, she suffered discrimination for being a Dalit and was barred from sitting with upper caste people on the committee. Despite raising her voice to bring an end to such discrimination, she was harassed and ultimately resigned from the Nepali Congress to join the CPN (UML) which she thought of as a less biased party. She worked for several of the UML’s sister organizations including the All Nepal Women’s Association (Akhil Nepal Mahila Sangh), the Farmer’s Association, Oppressed Castes Liberation Society and the Madhesi faction of the Lumbini Zone Coordination Committee. She has also served in various organizations, including the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO), Kalika Swawalamban Samajik Kendra, among others.

Involvement in politics

Shanti Devi’s involvement in politics has brought her some unwanted attention. People have destroyed her crops and even kidnapped her husband. A simple farmer by profession, her husband was intimidated and asked her to give up her political career. However, Shanti Devi was determined and continued her political life despite her husband’s wrath. She herself was attacked after she demanded the implementation of a revolutionary land reform program, geared against feudal landlords. She has endured insults and insinuations from her own community for working with male friends during campaigns, has been called “untouchable” by people of upper castes, accused of trying to seize other people’s land and beaten up. Despite all this, she has not stopped her struggle for the rights of the landless Dalits. She approached various governmental and non-governmental organizations in the capacity of a community leader to make demands on behalf of the Dalits, including raising their pay to NPR 160 (100 rupees cash and 60 rupees allowance).
Shanti Devi was involved in an uprising, where Dalits challenged the landlords, threatening to stop working if their wages were not increased. Despite several setbacks and disagreement from the landlords, negotiations took place and their wages were fixed to NPR 100, up from NPR 35. The next year, it was increased as per the demand to NPR 160.
Shanti Devi has played an active role in organizing Dalit women during the People’s Movement of 2005/06. After the concept of inclusive and proportional representation earned credibility, her party nominated her to the historic Constituent Assembly (CA) from Kapilvastu, acknowledging her social as well as political commitment.
She feels that the presence of 21 Dalits in the CA is a result of their tough struggle for equality and justice. Belonging to the major committees, the Committee for State Restructuring and Distribution of State Power and the Public Accounts Committee, Shanti has raised several issues within them for disadvantaged groups including women, Dalits and Madhesis; and pushed for their right to rise to the top echelons of power through special arrangements if needed.
She has demanded a country free of ‘untouchability’, ownership of land for the landless Dalits and provisions for inclusive and proportional representation in education, health care and employment. Shanti Devi has also suggested a high-level commission to monitor the implementation of rights and privileges set aside for Dalits. Moreover, she lobbied for nursing and midwife training for Chamar women, who take care of delivering children for minimal pay. In the Committee for State Restructuring and the Distribution of State Power, Shanti, along with other women members, prepared a list of women’s rights, with a separate agenda for Dalit women, Madhesi women and Madhesi Dalit women.
These lists have been used for the preparation of the preliminary draft report of the committee. She has also pushed for citizenship to be conferred through the mother and for equal property rights for both sons and daughters.
The responsibilities that come with the CA have certainly not been easy to handle but Shanti Devi is doing everything she can, properly balancing her professional and personal life. Her movement will only be successful when people sit and eat with Dalits, when women are respected, when discrimination ends - and when a truly equal society is established.
source:- http://www.idea.int

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