Rewa Roy: The Story of a Shaping Activist...

Not much time has passed when Rewa Roy used to consider herself as an ‘incapable’ person. The reason being her minor handicap which she suffered because of severe attack of polio at the age of 5. The same Rewa serves as a ‘social activist’ in Doosra Dashak Kishanganj block, committed to work with young men & women from Saharia community to make them aware of their rights and alter their self- image. And this has happened within a time span of 3 year.

19 year old Rewa Roy belongs to a Bengali family migrated from Bangladesh at the time of 1971 war and took refuge in Parania village of Kishanganj block in Baran district. Now this very village is the ‘home’ of Rewa and her family. She was born in India and except from hearing stories about B’desh from her older family/community members, she has no memories of her ancestral home. She lives in Parania and relates herself to the most impoverished community of Kishanganj known as Saharia, a primitive tribe.

It was the month of December of the year 2002 when Rewa for the first time took entry into Doosra Dashak fold. In her block, Doosra Dashak was implemented for past 1½ year and a number of forums of enthusiastic young boys & girls had started taking shape by then. Energetic enough to spread the message of Doosra Dashak through out the block, holding meetings with adolescents/young persons of different villages to encourage adolescents to participate in a new kind of educational experience, group of these persons approached Parania with two field workers of Doosra Dashak.

Rewa was amongst the curious listener in one of the meetings held by youth forum members in her village. Impressed by the vigor and energy of her peers, she agreed to participate in one of the training programmes on ‘Rural Journalism’ being organized at Bhanwargarh village in Kishanganj block of Doosra Dashak. “This was just for the sake of curiosity”, as Rewa describes it. “I wanted to know what do they do exactly”. Since then there has been no look back for Rewa. “I had thought that I would come back within 1-2 days”.

However, she attended the whole training programme for all 5 days, met with young persons of similar age group from different villages who were eager to come out of their existential realities, becoming allies of vision of a just society based on the principle of mutual respect and equity.

For Rewa it was quite a different experience altogether. Boys and girls learning and living together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and freedom, field workers and trainers acting as friends rather than givers.

Rewa was 8th pass by then and was occupied in Bidi making with her mother. “Looking after a widow mother, I use to feel that it was the end of life. I will keep making same bidis throughout my life and would never find a way out, says Rewa. I could barely walk because of my handicap and was a girl with exceptionally low self confidence”.

However, destiny was perhaps writing something unthinkable for this Bengali girl. As she returned to her village, equipped with knowledge about right to information, the Sarpanch of her village paved the way for Rewa shaping as a peer leader, from being a helpless girl always worried about her own future.

Rewa and her adolescent peers decided to ask Sarpanch to furnish certain informations in regard to village development work which he plainly refused to provide. The reason being her husband who practically owned the panchayat on behalf of his elected wife. Hurt by the blunt refusal of the sarpanch to abide by the law of the land Rewa and her allies decided to take up the matter further. They were determined not to leave the battle unfought. Informal discussions and meetings were held with the village persons, women and persons of similar age group, people were informed of the right to information and their entitlement to ask for their just rights.

Many ridiculed, expressed their doubts about the success of such a move against sarpanch and cornered themselves. However, there were some who understood and accepted to be a partner in the struggle. It was a partly successful endeavor. Struggle continued for almost a year but contributed a lot in establishing people’s belief in themselves. After a lot of persuasion, Sarpanch agreed to build the boundary of the school, which was one of the demands of the group.

There born a new girl, confident, articulate, with a capacity to develop understanding of the issues and pass it on to others. Very soon Rewa established herself as a peer educator amongst the persons of her age group. Very sensitive to the status of women in the society Rewa started taking interest in the activities of Jagrat Mahila Sangathan (a collective of awakened women formed in Kishanganj to advocate for womens’ and girls’ rights) in Kishanganj block and raising issues of concern to women as well as marginalized section of the society.

As Rewa herself says:“I have seen my mother struggling for survival after the death of my father and have experienced silent anger in her suppressed life. Society at large is ruthless towards a woman that’s what I feel. I myself have gone through the experience of discrimination in my life because of being a woman, a handicap person. Perhaps this very experience provides me energy to fight for those whom I saw going through exploitation, violence and severe sense of inequity in their lives”.

And Rewa proves her words through action. It was month of December, year 2002, when Baran district found itself amidst of severe famine. Provoked by the reports of starvation death and unbearable hardshipsof people, Doosra Dashak team organized itself to bring out information about the real condition of the people and provided relief to those leaving at the verge of destitution.

Rewa was again in the forefront, conducting survey of families helping in establishment of nutrition centre, training other youth groups in the technique of poverty survey and advocating for opening up relief work for people. Government responded positively and a number of relief works were started to provide work to the people going through hunger as a result of famine.

One of such work was going on in Gigcha where a Saharia Labourer was beaten brutally by a person from other caste. The reason being his raising voice against including name of that person in must roll when he didn’t work at all. Agitated by this kind of violence against a person of so called caste, Jagrat Mahila Sangathan and youth group decide to take up the matter to the police and demanded immediate arrest of the accused and relief for the victim. Rewa managed support from villages and a Dharna was organized in front of the nearby police thana which ended with the arrest of accused and assurance from the administration to provide compensation to the victim.

This worked as a magic to boost our morale, Rewa admits. We witnessed the power of being united and felt inner strength. After that there has been no look back for Rewa and her young counterparts.

When a woman in Mundiar village died as a result of brutal behavior of police as a result of provocation of the Tehsildar, Rewa and her counterparts made it a human rights issue and demanded action for all involved. For 9 full days a dharna was organized with participation of hundreds of village youths and community members to acquire justice for the victim. “Moreover, for us it was a matter of ensuring dignity of human life”, Rewa admits. A Tehsildar got angry because of so called lower caste people taking the liberty of putting gulal on the face of a powerful person in the social hierarchy. “We managed resources by ourselves through contribution of the community and firmly stayed on the ground till the tehsildar was transferred and the policemen involved in the mishap, were punished”.

Since then there are innumerable discreet examples of incidents against human dignity, gender inequality and exploitation of those who fall in the lowest rung of society which have been in the agenda of Rewa and her group of young adolescent boys and girls. Whether, it is a matter of right to work or right to education Rewa is the one always in the forefront.

Beaming with self confidence and a newly acquired self esteem, as a result of participation in almost everything happening in the Kishanganj block and around the area for restoration of values of justice and equity, Rewa serves as a team member of a group of social activists which has taken shape in Kishanganj. Responsible for peer counseling, formation of women’s group and youth group and holding change of Khandela cluster, an altogether new set of villages.

Her feet still lingers, she can barely walk, however, charged with energy and confidence in herself, this Bengali girl can be seen anytime in the remote villages of Kishanganj, shouting slogans for the people’s rights, explaining villages about their predicament and possible way out and counseling peers to pass through their difficult physical and psychological time.

It has not been a smooth journey, villagers used to criticize me. They would ask my mother about my marriage; all kinds of rumours would go around”, Rewa explains. Boys and girls work together, some day something bad would happen. Many were suspicious. There were questions in people’s mind- why was she roaming around in villages without any purpose of her own !. When the news of Parania Sarpanch pati was published in the new paper, he was furious. He thought I have instigated people against him and his sarpanch wife. There were many incidences, where we failed completely. Struggles took a long time and sometimes people were impatient. It was obvious. But we managed to survive because we were equipped with information, knowledge and courage. What I have realized over the years that collective is the only way out in a condition in which Saharias in Kishanganj live. We are trying to build larger collectives, with more people and more information who dare to put the things right.

And she seems to prove her words...