India's Musahars: Rat-eating poorest of poor still dwell on society's fringe 75 years after caste system's end

Dalit community may have officially shed its lowest caste label but stigma and discrimination remain a reality

Children carrying a loudspeaker. The children of Patna Rahika are Musahar Dalits. They do not study as there is no school in the village. Taniya Dutta for The National

In a nondescript village in India's eastern Bihar state, members of the Musahar Dalit community – formerly known as “untouchables” and barred from many areas of interaction with members of higher castes – still live on the fringes of modern society.

“We are no longer untouchables officially but there is a subtle discrimination,” Saudagar Rishi said. "There is no school, no hospital, no roads for us and no employment opportunities. We are going to the Moon, but here on Earth society still divides people by caste."

Mr Rishi, 30, sits surrounded by fellow villagers, both men and women, who nod emphatically in agreement. Children, mostly barefoot, played next to the elderly in groups. He and his fellow villagers are Musahar Dalits, the lowest of the section and fall at the bottom of the Hindu rigid caste system.

So poor and deprived are the Musahars they have often had to subsist on a diet of rodents, leading to their nomenclature. It's been almost 75 years since India's caste system was abolished by the country's post-colonial constitution, but those who suffered the most from its cruelty say its influence still lingers today.

“Discrimination fuelled by casteism has to end if our people have to grow,” Mr Rishi said.

Mr Rishi is from the small village of Patna Rahika in the Purnea district of Bihar state, in eastern India. The settlement of about 1,700 people is bereft of any basic amenities. Rows of thatched mud and brick houses are dotted along the road with no streetlights or plumbed-in drinking water.

“It seems the government wants us to be like this forever. If we were born into an upper caste, the situation would have been different. There would have been respect and facilities, roads and education. Since we are Dalits, they have left us to live here. They think we are illiterate, so we are fools. This discrimination should end,” said Mr Rishi.

There is no school in the village and the nearest hospital is some 35km away, making the villagers rely on auxiliary nurses or community health activists.

Their village is connected to the outside world by a dirt road pitted with massive potholes, which are often filled by floodwater overflowing from the nearby Kosi River.

“We walk everywhere because roads are broken and mostly flooded. Even if we are starving, we cannot go to the market during the rains. We go to the town every week to buy supplies. We are surviving on faith. We elect governments but they do nothing for us,” fellow villager Kalavati Devi, 60, said.

Millennia-old caste system

The plight of the village and its inhabitants is the result of the millennia-old caste system which is among the world’s oldest social stratification. It divides Hindu society into four hierarchical groups, based on their work and duty to their religion.

Through it history, the caste system has caused inequality, being exploited by those in power in upper castes to discriminate and subjugate people from lower caste communities, who are still not given opportunities to progress.

The Brahmins, the priestly group, enjoy the highest ranks and Dalits or officially scheduled castes, stand at the bottom, and are still forced to live outside the city or village limits.

Dalits form about 17 per cent of India’s 1.3 billion population and many from the community take up caste-based occupations like street sweepers, cobblers, leather workers and manual scavengers.

Musahars, who are mainly found in Bihar, where their population is estimated to be 2.2 million, in some parts of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state – including in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi – and in Nepal, are the Mahadalits, which means “extreme Dalits”.

Historically, Musahars were barred from entering temples or drinking water from wells used by upper-caste people. Denied employment due to their status, this marginalised community used to feed on rats smoked out from their holes in fields, to stave off hunger.

The Indian constitution treats all Indian citizens equally irrespective of their caste, race, religion, creed, descent, or place of birth but the system is still informally in use, as Dalits continue to face exclusion.

There are special rights and caste-based reservations for people from lower castes for education and jobs, but they rarely get opportunities to escape the system.

Lack of education, work opportunities

Musahars are landless people, which means they can’t do agricultural work. Most men from the community leave for towns and cities in other states where their caste is not known, and they work as daily wage labourers at agriculture fields or brick kilns. They make between 3,600 rupees ($42) and 12,000 rupees annually, according to India's National Human Rights Commission statutory body.

Paltry wages mean Musahars live impoverished lives in unhygienic conditions, deprived of medical care and the education that could otherwise give a chance to their children to emerge from caste-based poverty. Most women in the community cannot read or write.

The nearest school to Patna Rahika is about a kilometre away, but the absence of proper roads leaves it often inaccessible. It only caters to 40 students at a time when there are approximately 500 children in the village, Saloo Rishi, the government representative of Musahar in Patna Rahika said.

“Children don’t go to school. Who will drop them? They can’t walk to the school. Parents go to work. There should be at least two schools. Women go to the city to give birth and pay extra money. Same with auxiliary nurses, they charge us money,” Saloo Rishi, a member of the village council, told The National.

“It is simple, this is all because of caste discrimination. Nobody hears our voice. No one listens to the voice of a Dalit. No one genuinely wants to work for us,” he added.