Kamal Manjhi, the Dalit ward member from Darbhanga we encountered in the previous chapter, was in a quandary. He was a ward member, an elec...
Kamal Manjhi, the Dalit ward member from Darbhanga we encountered in the previous chapter, was in a quandary. He was a ward member, an elected representative. Yet, no one – not the mukhiya, who was not a Dalit, nor the BDO, nor the district officials – seemed to pay much heed to his concerns. The mukhiya simply refused to release funds to implement piped water projects in Manjhi’s ward.
Desperate for some relief, Manjhi decided to complain against the state. It was only recently he had heard of the BPGRA or, as it was colloquially known, Jan Shikayat (literally, “People’s Complaint”). Manjhi, being a member of the local state himself, was no ordinary “jan”. He was a ward member, an officer of the state. Nevertheless, Manjhi decided to file a complaint against the local state.
To do this, he took two buses to reach the subdivisional headquarters, stood in the queue like every aam aadmi, common man, with a grievance in front of the Jan Shikayat office.
Once his complaint was filed, he waited. Within weeks, Manjhi was called for the first of three hearings. He took those two buses once more and landed up at the grievance redressal office. Manjhi met with the grievance...
