Who would have thought that the cost of hard work and labor of a daily wage worker would be his life rather than his salary? In Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh an 18-year-old Dalit youth was brutally beaten to death, allegedly for demanding the wages promised to him for four days of labor on a farm in Baramadpur village within the district.
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Although the incident occurred on August 25, the family of the deceased has not yet received the postmortem report. According to the First Information Report (FIR), Kumar left his home on a bicycle to collect his wages from Yadav around 3-4 p.m. on August 25. Tragically, he never returned home, and the family received the news of Kumar’s hospitalization late in the evening. Regrettably, he had already passed away by the time his family reached the hospital.
The following day, on August 26, an FIR was filed at Akhandnagar Police Station based on Kumar’s father’s statement. A case has been registered under Section 302 (Murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The FIR names both Yadav and another unknown person as accused. While Yadav has already surrendered to the police, the second accused remains at large.
Kumar was the youngest child in his family and had been engaged in odd jobs to make a living. In the days leading up to his death, he had been working tirelessly to earn money to buy gifts for his sisters on Rakshabandhan. His family remembers Kumar’s life as one of relentless struggles, marked by his unwavering efforts to meet his daily needs. Despite facing numerous challenges, he never gave up. The family is now devastated by his untimely death, believing it was motivated by his caste.
Kumar’s death has ignited outrage in his native Baramadpur village in Sultanpur district. A candle march was organized, demanding justice for Kumar’s family and condemning caste-based violence. The protestors also called for a government job to be provided to Kumar’s family.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Uttar Pradesh has the dubious distinction of recording the highest number of crimes against Dalits. Out of more than 1.9 lakh crimes against Dalits recorded by the NCRB between 2018 and 2021, Uttar Pradesh accounted for the lion’s share, with 49,613 cases of atrocities against Dalits. In 2018, 11,924 cases were recorded, 11,829 in 2019, 12,714 in 2020, and 13,146 in 2021.
The victim, Vinay Kumar (18), had sought payment of his wages from the accused, Digvijay Yadav, for whom he had worked for over four days. Instead of paying Kumar his wages, Yadav allegedly attacked him, resulting in his tragic death.
Have we become so blinded by blind faith and casteism that we have forgotten that, in the end, we are all human beings who breathe the same air? In India, the issue of casteism has persisted for a long time. Humans discriminate against other humans simply because they believe they are slightly superior in stature. In this blind faith of the caste system, animals, although not as evolved as human beings, demonstrate a far greater ability to coexist with different species.
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