On 23rd May reportedly 70 Dalit families from village Bhagana, Hisar District, Haryana left their village together with their cattle and settled themselves outside the Mini-Secretariat in Hisar town in Haryana. They were protesting against mounting oppression and the appropriation of land by the Jats of their village. Among others these included denial of access to water sources, taking over of rights to common areas in the village, and of land on which they buried their animals, etc. As several complaints to the administration yielded no results and the incidents were only escalating, they had taken this drastic action. In the course of their sit-in, despite several meetings, the stalemate continued. No FIR had been registered on the basis of the Dalits’ complaints. The state responded by trying to effect a settlement and then used the strong arm of the law against the protestors. Matters had reached a head on 18th June when 45 protestors had been arrested and 6 charged with edition though later these were dropped.
To download the report, click below:
This Village is Mine too: Dalit Assertion, Land Rights and Social Boycott in Bhagana
For the Hindi version of the report, click below:
यह गाँव मेरा भी है: भगाना में दलित दावेदारी , भूमि अधिकार एयर सामाजित बहिष्कार
For the follow-up to this report, click below:
Sexual Assault on Four Girls in Haryana in the Context of Dalit Rights to Common Land
