Lack of education, legal know-how put a spoke on justice delivery in Bihar’s gram kachaharis

People increasingly prefer redressal of their complaints through police stations and courts as they feel that many village sarpanches are not educated enough, legally or otherwise, to make the right decisionsDinapur Cantonment, Bihar: Sanjay Kumar (40) had gone to the gram kachahari (village court) of Danapur regarding a land dispute, but the division that took place there was not acceptable to him. Later, he had to approach the janta darbar organised by the circle officer at the police station. “If you do not get justice from the rural court, you will face problems in getting justice in future also. First impression is important. Only a person knowledgeable in law should be brought to this post. Only then will the number of cases reaching the courts reduce,” says Patna High Court advocate Shakeel Akhtar, adding that appointing uneducated women as sarpanches is only giving rise to unnecessary controversy. In Bihar, gram kachaharis have been delivering justice to villagers in the last few decades. However, the state government’s decision to reserve the position of sarpanch to women in the panchayat elections since 2006 has led to a condition where uneducated women occupied that post. This has led to an erosion of faith among villagers over the functioning of gram kachaharis.Earlier, the decisions of the sarpanch were accepted as final. Today, despite roping in the panchayat secretary and a government-appointed nyay mitra, only four to five cases — mostly related to land disputes and religious violence — reach the sarpanch of a rural court in a month. Even in those cases, people are not satisfied with the decision of the sarpanch.Gram kachaharis have two types of jurisdiction. Keeping in view that the courts are taking years to execute the cases in the present judicial system, gram kachaharis has been given criminal jurisdiction under IPC Sections 106, 107, etc.  Despite the panchayati raj department providing the services of panchayat secretary and nyay mitra, the problems associated with decision-making have not been fully solved. The secretary helps the sarpanch from time to time, while the nyay mitra gives legal advice on the actions and decisions of the sarpanch. All panchayats in Bihar get their services in running gram kachaharis.However, due to the low contracted amount, the sarpanch sometimes faces difficulties. A sarpanch is paid Rs 5,000 per month for all the work that he does in the village, while a panchayat secretary is paid Rs 6,000. Nyay mitra, who should be an LLB graduate, is paid Rs 7,000. Mostly, nyay mitra is able to give time only one day in a week, while the panchayat secretary is given the responsibility of more than two panchayats, due to which they find it difficult to give full time attention.There are 8,053 village panchayats in Bihar. However, 760 (9.44%) sarpanches are illiterate, of which 498 are women. There are 1,582 female and 796 male sarpanches (29.53%) who are literate or with below class 8 pass as educational qualification. The class 8 pass (13.25%) category has 606 women and 462 men, while class 10 pass category (18.64%) comprises 517 female and 985 male sarpanches. Class 12 pass category (14.47%) has 342 women and 824 men, while graduate category (12.15%) has 259 women and 720 men. The postgraduate lot (2.52%) includes 28 women and 175 male sarpanches. The overall figures show that the percentage of illiterates or below class 8 pass combined is more than any other group. According to government data, more than 14,593 cases are pending in village kachaharis from 2021 to 2024, most of which are civil (8,364) and criminal (6,413) cases. For example, about 1,654 cases are pending in Bhagalpur district. In view of this, the panchayati raj department had called meetings and ordered to settle the pending cases as quickly as possible. Panchayat baithak in the village (Photo - Amarjeet Sharma, 101Reporters)Legal knowledge mandatory“Sarpanches who do not have legal knowledge should not be made a rural court judge. It is necessary that the person should be trained to deal with legal matters and have a bachelor’s degree. Only such qualified people should be chosen to the post,” says Advocate Tej Narayan Sinha of the Patna Civil Court.Ankit Kumar (30), the sarpanch of Gonpura panchayat in Patna, tells 101Reporters that education is necessary if one has to serve well as a sarpanch. “It should be decided at the time of election that whoever the candidate is, be it a man or woman, that person should be at least matriculation pass. However, I feel this is such a post where it will be difficult for anyone less than a graduate to function well. Sarpanches also need judicial information and training from time to time,” notes Ankit.Sarpanch Chandan Kumar (40) of Kurkuri panchayat of Phulwari Sharif, Patna, did not pass class 10 and knows first-hand the difficulties in handling gram kachaharis. “I underwent just two days of judicial training in a camp organised at Danapur Block Office. I was not even fully informed about how justice should be delivered in gram kachaharis,” he says.However, Phulwari Sharif Block Development Officer Vijay Kumar Mishra claims that besides special training in law, booklets are provided so that sarpanches do not face problems in administering justice.Phulwari Sharif Police Station head MA Hydari tells 101Reporters that when the matter is not resolved in gram kachaharis, people come to the janta darbar held in the police station every Saturday. “At the darbar, cases of land disputes are brought to the notice of the zonal officer. There are magistrates also at the darbar. At least five to 10 cases are settled every week.” According to Nausha panchayat sarpanch Farzana Khatoon, approaching a formal court also means travel expenses and lawyer's fee, whereas there are no such expenses attached to the village court. Nyay mitra Manoranjan Kumar (42) says that he provides legal advice to the sarpanch whenever needed. “Whenever we are called for this panchayat work, we go. Also, it is mandatory to go every Saturday.”However, Manoranjan adds that the contract amount of Rs 7,000 per month should be increased as it is simply not enough to travel to the panchayat assigned every week. Pramod Kumar Tripathi, an NGO worker from Bhusaula panchayat, says that in the village court it does not matter if the sarpanch is a woman, but it does matter that she is literate and educated. "If the sarpanch is uneducated, the decisions could be taken by his/her supporters, or will be as per their wishes."Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Representative image of sarpanch's court in a village (AI generated by Canva)

Floods, erosion and the miserable existence in Danapur Diara

Pounding waters have eroded Diara's land and displaced people from 15 villages so far, while fear of more villages submerging looms large  Patna, Bihar: The idiom ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ resonates well with the lives of the residents of Danapur Diara, located about 15 km from Bihar’s capital Patna. On one side is the fear of erosion, and on the other is the fear of floods. And this has been the case for the last 46 years. Things were no different this time when Danapur Diara came under the grip of floods on August 5, when 13,42,097 cusecs of water were released into River Son from Indrapuri barrage in Rohtas in a single day. As floodwaters entered the Ganga and submerged their fields, people anxiously watched through the night with a prayer on their lips.Danapur Diara or Diara is an island in the middle of Ganga adjacent to Danapur city. It falls under 11 panchayats, of which six are in Danapur sub-division, four in Saran sub-division and one in Patna Sadar sub-division. These panchayats together have 75 villages within them, with a total population of about five lakh.The waves from Son-Ganga hit one side of Danapur Diara, while the waves from Ganga hit the other side. In the middle, the land of Danapur Diara is decreasing due to erosion, and the displaced villagers are settling at​ ​Danapur-Shahpur area in Patna district.  The gravity of the situation becomes clear when one realises that 15 villages have submerged in the Ganga from 1978 to 2013. Purani Panapur seems to be next in line. A slight erosion and the village will disappear forever.  Between the devil and the deep blue sea (Photo - Amarjeet Sharma, 101Reporters) “Erosion of the Diara started in 1978, when the water level of the Ganga rose and fell. The river that used to flow northward passing through the confluence of Ganga and Saraswati near Maner started flowing southwards and swallowed 15 villages in its wake. The government of that time did not pay any attention to erosion,” said Rambhajan Singh Yadav, national president, All India Flood, Drought and Erosion Victims Struggle Front, who has been working for more than 50 years to save Diara. According to him, four lakh people have been affected by flood fury since 1978. However, the government could permanently settle only 500 people from Jhauri Tola at an agricultural farm in Danapur. The rest of the people were shifted only temporarily and left to fend for themselves. Rambhajan recalled how the front had launched a hunger strike on behalf of Diara residents in 1990, following which the then chief minister, Lalu Prasad, met them and listened to their problems. Measures to check erosion started since then, which had a positive effect. Six of the total 11 panchayats of Danapur Diara fall under Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency, one under Patna Sahib constituency and four under Saran constituency. As for Assembly constituencies, six panchayats (Purani Panapur, Manas, Kasimchak, Palanapur, Gangahara and Hetanpur) are in Danapur, one (Nakata) in Digha and five panchayats (Oath, Sahilpur, Hasilpur and Akilpur) in Sonpur constituency. The people of Diara have another pain. The Pipa Bridge, established when Lalu Prasad became the MLA of  Danapur Assembly constituency in 1995, is closed to traffic when water in the Ganga rises. “We then have to rely on boats to reach Danapur. There have been many boat accidents, in which many people have lost their lives. We have held protests demanding that a permanent bridge be constructed instead of the pontoon bridge,” said Omprakash Yadav (56), a former zila parishad member of Danapur.   Not only this, there have been many agitations to prevent erosion of Diara, after which the government did boulder pitching and geo bag pitching from Hetanpur to Panapur, but the geo bags burst repeatedly, which meant repeated repair by the Son Ganga Flood Protection Division and a huge expense for the government. "When a geo bag bursts, it is repaired by filling sand in the plastic bag. If it is not capable of being repaired, an estimate is prepared and presented before the officials concerned to undertake repair work," Shishir Kumar, Executive Engineer, Ganga-Sone Flood Protection Division, Patna, told 101Reporters.Pounding waters have eroded Diara's land and displaced people from 15 villages so far (Photo - Amarjeet Sharma, 101Reporters) Meanwhile, Omprakash said the villagers believed that pitching done in a solid way by placing big boulders can prevent erosion, but the government always tried to stop erosion by installing geo bags. "Despite having three Assembly and three Lok Sabha constituencies, no MP or MLA raised voice to get these demands fulfilled,” he added. “Boulder and geo bag pitching was done in 500 meters from near Kashim Chak Hanuman Temple to Panapur, but work on 400 meters is pending. This is why the fear of erosion keeps haunting us,” said Mritunjay Kumar, a resident of Purani Panapur in Danapur Diara. According to former zila parishad member Om Prakash Rai, who lives in Bishanpur under Kasimchak panchayat, Diara can be connected to Patna city and a stream of development can flow in if the government constructed a permanent bridge and ring dam and made proper arrangements to check erosion. “I also have land in Diara where I take up cultivation now. We have stopped living there and have built another house at Danapur,” Om Prakash added. No wonder why families that used to keep servants in their houses live in huts today and are forced to work as labourers to feed their families. Baswant Ram (50) lived at Purani Panapur's Mahadalit Tola before the village came under the grip of erosion in 2013. Today, he comes to the Ganga’s banks at Nasriganj in Danapur block with his grandson and keeps looking at the waters there. “We used to spend happy days with the family and villagers at Diara. Nothing is left now. We do not have a permanent house; we live in a hut and earn a living by doing labour,” he said. "When our village submerged, 159 households were given cheap land on the Ganga's banks at Mahinama in Maner. We did not move there and are living like nomads,” Ram said. The people settled by the government have not received possession certificates from the government yet, due to which the fear of eviction also looms large. Those from Nakata Diara and Bind Toli took shelter in Digha and Rajiv Nagar, while those in Navdiari and Chakia Tola are in Shahpur and Sherpur. Those from Dalip Chak are in Daudpur Shahpur, and those from Bada Kashimchak, Chhota Kashim Chak, Bakshi Tola and Gosai Tola are in Mathiapur and Nitish Aahar. The people of Jhai Tola were settled at an agricultural farm in Danapur, Balkhari and Ganghara Danapur and Shivpuri, while the people of Hetanpur are in Daudpur and Purani Panapur Tola residents are staying behind BS College. The Dalit Tola of Purani Panapur was first settled in the block office, after which they were given a place in Maner's Mahinama, but people were not ready to go there because it is on the banks of the Ganga. At present, they are somehow living in different places. None of them have received their possession certificate so far. Randhir Kumar Singh (55), a victim of Nakta Diara erosion, said that his father owned 60 bighas of land earlier. “We also had bulls, buffaloes and cows. There was no dearth of milk and curd, but we were left without food when our land and house were washed away. We had to make arrangements to shift our animals. We lived on government land in Rajiv Nagar for a few days, but were removed from there as well. I somehow managed to buy some land in Rajiv Nagar by saving money through wages and by building a hut, the whole family is living there,” said Singh, who works as a construction labourer now. “We five brothers and my uncle’s four sons are all forced to live a nomadic life by working wherever we can. My father and uncle died due to sorrow. The government did not help us in any way. Our children also studied in government schools till classes four and five. When they turned 18, they also became labourers to run the house,” he detailed. Doban Rai (60 ) from Purani Panapur points to the need for special arrangements from the government side. "We bear the pain of flood and erosion every year. Some people have settled in other places in the Diara itself by building huts, while others have gone to the Danapur area and are living in huts on the banks of the government canal. We face problems in accessing food and vegetables. It becomes difficult to live,” he attested. Ram Kumar, a resident of Diara and a boatman for 25 years, seemed to have got used to the flux. "There are a lot of problems for a few days following the floods. But then, slowly life somehow comes back on track."Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Villagers living in fear of more villages submerging (Photo - Amarjeet Sharma, 101Reporters)