With an aim to let those in dire need of caste-based reservation avail the advantage instead of those who have “reaped benefits for generations”, a Madhya Pradesh Dalit law student is waging a war against what he says is social injustice within the reserved communities.
Vikram Kumar Bagde (25), who himself belongs to the reserved category, in February this year had dispatched a petition letter to the Supreme Court of India with a request for incorporation of ‘creamy layer’ criteria in the caste-based reservation system.
However, the experience thereafter hasn’t been a good one for the young law student who believes that just like people can voluntarily give up cooking gas and rail travel subsidy, the resource-rich section of the reserved categories should have the option to forgo the benefits to ensure those in real need can get the advantage.
“I got several threat calls where callers threatened to eliminate me, I faced misbehaviour from the community and my father was threatened by fellow community members with social boycott,” recounted Vikram.
“I had a discussion with my father and made him understand that first we need to end discrimination within our community. He accepted and supported my views,” said the young law student who is pursuing LLB from Rajiv Gandhi College, Mandsaur.
Vikram said he had lodged a complaint over the threatening calls with Rampura police station in Neemuch, his hometown. He maintained that people from reserved categories were availing benefits for generations but those from marginalised sections remain where they were decades ago.
The law student is, however, committed to his cause of raising awareness on and off social media. “I had received an online message over registration of my petition but I can’t find it now,” said Vikram, adding that he will send another petition letter and will approach the Supreme Court directly with like-minded activists once the pandemic ebbs.
According to Vikram, several people have got together for this cause. These include Sunil Lokhande from Betul (MP), Madhu Paswan from Sitamarhi (Bihar), Bharat Mochi from Gujarat, Mahendra Nayak Bheel from Rajasthan, and others.
Several people are apprehensive of a social backlash and are running the campaign anonymously, added Vikram, whose father works as a peon. Sunil Lokhande, a medical representative from Betul who is working in Ujjain, told News18 over the phone that he had been fighting against this social anomaly for long and demanded a review of the entire reservation system.
“For political benefits, several castes were drafted into reservation ambit and kept reaping benefits of the caste reservation while a large section of these reserved categories is still battling for basic needs,” he said.
He added another dimension to the debate saying lack of reservation benefits affects mental and physical growth of kids in such families as these deprived households can’t afford good upbringing for them.
Like Vikram Bagde, Sunil Lokhande too had been facing social backlash for his views. “Unknowingly, people curse me for working against the reservation system and the Mahar (Bauddh) community had even lodged a police complaint against me in the past, charging me of working against the ideals of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar,” said Sunil, the son of a porter, who too has sent a petition letter to SC.
The two young men from MP have been joined by middle-aged activist Madhu Paswan from Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, who got in touch with them through social media.
“I am on the hit list of every dreaded shooter in the region, as locals claim I am working against reservation,” Paswan told News18 over the phone.
Hailing from a remote area adjoining the Nepal border, Paswan, whose mother was made a village pradhan, says he had no idea about this social injustice. “When I worked as an auto rickshaw driver and visited the remotest localities, I came to know about the penury and hardships of the reserved-category people,” he said.
“Let alone getting government jobs, these people can’t even get proper treatment at hospitals and justice at courts,” added Paswan, who as member of an NGO, Yuva Shakti Seva Sansthan, works for awareness and education in a Mahadalit locality of around 500 in the region.
Paswan, who has no means, including proper typewriting facilities in his native town, has requested Vikram Bagde to dispatch a petition letter to the SC to his behalf.
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