“It costs Rs.3 lakhs – Rs.300,000 – to get into the army. About Rs.1 lakh to become a teacher and something inbetween to get a job as a pune in a college. where do we get that kind of money from?” is a constant refrain that you hear.

The levels of educated unemployed amongst Dalits is exceedingly high. Arjun – one of TDSS’s Rs.500 per month scholarship holders – is a MA in English literature, and is currently in the 2nd (of 4) year of a law programme. He supplements his scholarship through manual labour in the fields. When he asked why he doesn’t take up a teaching post, he says that it is because of the money needed to bribe someone to get a job. When asked why he doesn’t take tutions the answer is that no one who can afford to pay will send his kids toa Dalit to learn. Udgir is still a small town with small town mentality.

Ranjita, a memeber of the Lahmani tribe, and a TDSS scholarship holder – vascillates between wanting to be a policewoman or a teacher. She fears at the bribes that will be demanded no matter what her choice.

Jyaneshwar Suryavanshi points me out to a case of theirs’ where a Dalit pune in the local college died in an accident, during duty. By law the college was obliged to offer the job to next of kin – in addition to some compensation. However, college officials wanted a “donation” of Rs.2 lakhs to give the job to the son, who also was handicapped. “Humne Sangharsh Kiya” – we launched a struggle -said Suryavanshi. A struggle means that upwards of 500 protestors turn up at your doorstep and stay there until you are heard. The day we landed in Udgir, the boy was employed by the college as a pune, without bribing anyone a single nai paisa.

Balaji Shinde explains the government sponosred Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) to me. He tells me that the state is obliged to find work for atleast 100 days in a year for labourers. For those employed under the EGS scheme the Goverment states a payment of 2/3rds the minimum wage plus wheat at Rs.2 per KG per day. The contractors and the officials deal internally and hand out just the wheat. They keep the wage and split it between themselves.

All the activists are equally agreed that the worst thing that has happened for Dalits is caste based reservation. As Suryavanshi sums it up

A Dalit is someone who doesnt’ have bhakri (bread) to eat. A Dalit is someone who finds a Rs.5 pen expensive and cannot afford to buy books to study or pay their exam fees. A Dalit is someone whose house gets swept away in the rains.It doesn’t matter if they are mahar, gujjar, brahmin, muslim, christian, buddhist’.

Today reservation only benefits the rich who conviniently call themselves “Dalit” for political and power reasons. How can Gopinath Munde’s family be Dalit. How can someone whose father is a Doctor and a mother a teacher be called a Dalit?

The benefits don’t come to us. it is kept by the rich and powerful amongst themselves.

All the activists i spoke to agreed that corruption at all levels has ensured that they remain poor. They see Dalit as being poverty stricken. They see education as the key to getting out of poverty. And they see financial success as the key to caste barriers crumbling. The rich and the powerful have no caste – they say.

Corruption is the worst thing that we face. It impacts the amount of development and aid that reaches the receipient. It ensures that the weakest of the weak, the poorest of the poor, the most disadvantaged of the disadvantaged – remain there generation after generation, perpetuating the worst form of discrimination.

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“we need books” is the answer. The question is ‘what can be done to improve the situation of Dalits in rural Maharashtra.’

Gyaneshwar Suryavanshi tells me that students from Dalit backgrounds who have graduated high school (12th) or even graduation with high marks find it next to impossible to go on to higher education. They cannot afford to purchase Rs.150 to Rs.250 (US$ 3.5 to US$4.5) books that are required to pursue higher education.

I met Arjun – a law student – who had stalled his education at the university. He earns around Rs.500 to Rs.750 per month (US$ 11 to US$ 16) and the cost of books are too exhorbitent to be conisdered.

In Ahmedpur, where 10th standard students have been topping the board every year for the last few years, there is an ironical quandry. Local kids – especially for those of Dalit backgrounds – cannot get admission to local schools, because paying parents have arrived from across Maharashtra, to admit their kids in Ahmedpur Schoos – for a shot at the no.1 position.

We met a couple of girls who could not finish their 10th standard. The reason the school wanted Rs.2000/- (US$55) as her admission fee. The name of the school Mahatma Gandhi Vidhyalaya.

Where wages are low and employment not regular, where survival is the priority and books a luxary – the sheer poverty ensures that one more generation of Dalit children do not escape the cycle of oppression.

At the end of the first day, Amit wanted a Gun – prefrebly one that did not run out of bullets. At the end of the first day i began understanding what the Naxalites are talking about. And even if i don’t agree with their tactics, i can see the desperation that led them to such a step.

We have decided to start a pool and collect money for books- 6 of us – our own private cess on education for a few months – and maybe we will have the start of a library.

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