Dalits won’t take it lying down anymore…

This land struggle is proving to be a turning point for Dalits in Punjab. Even while feudal and State power unleashes another chapter of injustice
Akash Bisht Mansa (Punjab)

Paramjeet Kaur, mother of three, isn't scared to go to jail if it is for a good cause. She has already been to jail twice for capturing panchayat land allotted to Dalits under the Punjab Villages Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961. She proudly narrates how on April 22, 2008, she along with several landless Dalits, seized 22 acres of land earmarked for them in Daler Singhwala village in Mansa district of Punjab. When the administration came to know about the kabzaa, they started negotiations with the Dalit-Sikh leadership. Finally, they decided that once the panchayat elections were over, the land would be distributed among the landless Dalits. Leaders of the movement didn't agree to give up the possession of the seized land. They decided to wait for the administration's nod.

The fiery Paramjeet received threats of social boycott from upper caste Sikhs. That didn't deter her from getting landless Dalit labourers like her their share of land. She doesn't want any share of that land for herself though. Her husband is in the army and earns enough to sustain their family, she says. He has built a decent house with his savings where their large joint family lives. She is now determined - whatever hurdles comes her way she would battle on and get what her people deserve, a small piece of land to build a house. "Is it asking for too much?" she asks.

However, a year has passed since the incident but the administration is yet to respond. Dismayed at the callous attitude, angry villagers, with the support of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, the CPI-ML (Liberation) and the Revolutionary Youth Front (RYA), started capturing land in different villages of Mansa, Sangrur and Bhatinda districts of Punjab from May 1, 2009.

Paramjeet was among the villagers who captured land and built kuchcha and pucca huts on it. Some families moved into those huts with their belongings. It was from her village that the movement started. Women of the villages had a big role in making the movement a success. And, Paramjeet was leading the women.

After May1, 35 other villages captured land similarly. The administration was busy with Lok Sabha elections and the movement went unnoticed. However, when the landlords woke up to this, they threatened villagers with social boycott - a practice followed for generations where Dalits are denied entry not only into gurudwaras but also into fields of upper caste landlords for fodder or to defecate. This happens even if they ask for legitimate wages, or end to bonded labour. The Dalit-Sikhs are landless and most land is under the control of upper caste landlords in this typically feudal and casteist set-up - so where will they go? They are not even employed in their fields. "They felled trees where Dalit women went to relieve themselves. Now, we don't even have a place where there's some privacy," says Paramjeet.

Eventually, the Mansa administration and mounted pressure on Dalits to vacate the land at the earliest. The leaders of the movement then decided to hold a mass protest outside the office of the deputy commissioner (DC) of Mansa district to demand their share of land and job cards for NREGA schemes. They were even ready to go to jail if their demands were not met. More than "12,000 people" held a peaceful protested outside the DC's office on May 19. "The administration got scared and eventually reached an agreement with our leadership. It was decided that all applications for land and job cards should be submitted by May 29, 2009," informs Kamaljeet Singh, President, RYA.