. Village: Loharshi, State: Chhattisgarh

A: What has changed?

1. During our visit to the village we learnt that the cook appointed by the State to run the Angawadi program was feeding the children with food that was not freshly cooked. Under the scheme children of the age group of one to three years receive a meal and the space is provided along with all necessary ingredients including the firewood at the center to enabling cooking fresh food. The cook however cooked the food at her home early morning and fed the same to children later in the day. So we had a meeting of the Samta Sainik Dal and made a formal complain. The teacher thereafter apologized and promised that the food would be cooked at the center and fresh food would be served to the children. From next day children have been served with freshly cooked food.

2. On 10^th July 2015 a young Brahmin girl was on a picnic at the riverside at village Devar Ghata when five young boys appeared and under a false pretext picked up a quarrel. While two boys started beating badly her boyfriend pushing him away from her the three remaining boys picked her up and carried her to the deeper forest. While two boys raped her; the third videotaped the incident of rape. Later they left her with the bruised boyfriend with a threat that they would make video public if they utter a word about the incident. Few days the rapists started calling her on her mobile asking for ransom with a threat to make public the video had she failed to pay the money. She was unable to pay the money and the boys made public the video. The girl with no option to find a support; contacted DF fellows for help. DF fellows first took into confidence her relatives and helped her to file a police complaint. The five culprits were immediately arrested. Notably of the five boys involved in rape there were Dalit and Tribal boys too. DF fellows have earned a good name when they stood with the victim.

B: What has not changed?

Although we can say that the caste discrimination has decreased as compared to the earlier time it is a fact that it has not completed gone.

C: What has blocked the change?

The elderly people continue to practice Untouchability much more and hence it prevents the change

Story reported by Ms. Sati Anasuya Kashyap