By IANS
Patna : The families of 10 nomads lynched by a mob in Bihar’s Vaishali district two months ago say they are struggling to make ends meet as the state government has not provided them with adequate compensation.
“We have hardly eaten anything since my husband was killed two months ago,” said Nirma Devi, wife of Bara Keuri, one of the 10 men falsely accused of being a thief and lynched on Sep 13 in Dhelpurwa village near Hajipur, about 40 km from here.
After the outrage over the brutal killing of the poverty-stricken Kueris, a sub-group of a nomadic tribe called Nat, the Nitish Kumar government had announced plans of rehabilitating their kin.
“We were provided some household items, including kitchen utensils and 10 kg of rice. The local administration also opened a bank account and deposited Rs.10,000 in my name but that was all,” said Ghutni Devi, wife of Anjay Kueri who was killed in the incident.
The Akhil Bhartiya Kuraiyar (ABK), an NGO fighting for the rights of the Kueris, has urged the state government to give the kin of the victims compensation of Rs.500,000, a house and a job to one member of each family.
“We demand adequate compensation based on Rule 12 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1995,” Kamal Raut Kureri of the ABK said here.
According to him, the government had promised old age pension for the elderly, houses under the Indira Awas Yojna, inclusion of the names of the victims’ family members in the voters’ list and free education to their children as part of the rehabilitation package.
The brutal killing of these men had struck fear in the hearts of the Nats — a poverty-stricken, marginalised community.
“The message is clear. We are not important for the champions of social justice because our community does not fetch votes for politicians,” Surendra Nat, an activist, said.
The Nats have been traditionally involved in bird catching and honey gathering.
“Politicians have not bothered to take up the issue of human rights violations because the Nat community has been deprived of the fundamental right to vote as their names are not enlisted in the voters lists,” added Karu Nat, a social worker.
The Nat community feels the lynching incident could have become a major issue had the victims been from any other caste.
“The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) did not oppose the issue, fearing any demand for stern action against culprits would antagonise the Yadavs who form the main political support base for party chief Lalu Prasad,” a political observer said.
The Nats believe the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) downplayed the entire issue for the same reason.
It is estimated that around half a million Nat community members live in Bihar.
A high-level probe by Anil Sinha, inspector general (administration) of Bihar Police, into the incident has found that those beaten to death were not thieves.
Police said the victims were returning from a feast and got involved in a heated argument with an auto-rickshaw driver over fares near Dhelpurwa. This led to screaming and shouting that attracted a mob, which beat them up mercilessly.
The National Commission for Denotified and Nomadic Tribes, after an inquiry into the sequence of events leading to the incident, said the mob that killed them was not even aware of any theft.