A fighter in life and an
inspiration in death
Food is a life and death
issue for poor communities
across the globe. For some
like father-of-two Lalit
Kumar Mehta, so is the
struggle to secure it.
This was played out in its
most ghastly form in the
Palamau District, Jharkhand,
when the 35-year-old
activist was murdered in the
cold blood for campaigning
with dalits and tribal
families for their food
entitlements.
Two days after he went
missing, Lalit’s body was
exhumed from a police grave
and identified.
Lalit was member of Vikas
Sahyog Kendra (VSK), a
long-term partner of
ActionAid, which works in
one of the poorest parts of
the planet. In Palamau
district, starvation has
become an everyday reality
for thousands of villagers.
The killing on the night of
May 14th has
shocked civil society and
local organisations. It is
being seen as a direct
attack on peaceful
rights-based approach to
development.
“This is one of the most
painful incidents in our
recent history. The murder
was brutal, pre-meditated
and was an act of terror to
attempt to silence the voice
of peaceful fighters for
justice,”
reads a message from Babu
Mathew, country director,
ActionAid.
“If our work was not
relevant we would not have
been attacked in this
manner,” he adds.
“No State operates in this
area. The cost of resisting
the power of landlords is
life,”
is how Lalit described his
work rallying communities
who had been pushed to the
margins through debt, loss
of land, crop failure and
decades of discrimination.
He knew the dangers involved
in acting against the wishes
of powerful local money
lenders, petty contractors
and government officials.
Powers-that-be un-nerved
Lalit was the moving spirit
behind the Gram Swaraj
Abhiyan, a local platform
set up to claim entitlements
to food and work under the
government social security
system.
At the time of his death, he
was helping a team of
volunteers to conduct a
social audit in a bid to get
government anti-poverty
schemes providing food, work
and nutrition implemented in
Chainpur and Chhattarpur
blocks of Palamau district.
Attempts had already been
made to dissuade the team
from conducting their work,
particularly in Chainpur
Block. Lalit was killed just
a day after the
investigation began.
Local contractors and
officials were unhappy with
his work of exposing
corruption and mobilising
people to demand their
rights.
Keeping the struggle alive
In the last year the VSK
team had made great strides.
They sensitised gram
panchayat members. The
quality of leaders improved.
Corruption was exposed and
even money recovered.
Programmes for employment,
pensions, ration cards,
mid-day meals for children
and mother and infant
nutrition centres were all
given a kick start. School
enrolment increased and
mortgaged land was returned
from money lenders.
One of the goals of VSK is
to make accessible 100 days
of employment for 16,000
families in 40 villages in
the district.
“If this murder was an act
of intimidation, it did not
succeed. Friends and
supporters from all over
Jharkhand gathered at Vikas
Sahyog Kendra on 17 May.
They unanimously resolved to
continue the campaign
against corruption and
exploitation in this area,”
reads a media release by VSK.
“A public hearing on the
National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme will be
held in Chhattarpur on 26
May. We appeal to all those
who stand in solidarity with
Lalit and his work to
participate in this event,”
it adds.
Lalit was married to Ashrita,
whom he met in the course of
our work, and has two young
children.
An inquiry by Central Bureau
of Investigation is being
demanded to expose those
behind the killing.
