Country: Bihar, India

Group: Chamar/Ravidas

Date: October 17, 2023

Name: Ash Pessaran (lead), Rebekah Dilks

Content Warnings: Slavery

Approximate Time Period: 1960’s – 1970’s

There are approximately 4 million Chamar/Ravidas people living in Bihar, India (India Census, 2011). The Chamars are the most pervasive low-caste group in Bihar, and the word chamar is derived from charmakar, which in Sanskrit means a worker engaged in leatherwork (Saha N et. al, 1992).

There is evidence Chamar/Ravidas have been subjected to forced labor in Bihar, India. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Kurmi (a higher caste) had the Dalit castes in Bihar, including the Chamar/Ravidas perform agricultural labor in their lands in exchange for a small amount of kesari, a grain with very little nutritional value (Kunnath G, 2009). In neighboring Uttar Pradesh, Dalits are landless laborers, while Kurmis are the predominant landowners, possibly affecting their prior status as landless laborers in Bihar as well (Kumar N, 2000). Given India’s formerly predominant caste system, many lower-castes were subject to intense discrimination by higher castes and the rest of their community.

Although the caste system was abolished in India in 1950, the millenia of its existence have long-lasting systematic implications resulting in continued discrimination against the “lower” castes such as the Chamar people of Bihar (Sahgal N, 2021). The population suffers from chronic hunger and seasonal food insecurity. Community members are forced into migrant labor due to “lack of employment opportunity, deprivation and loss of traditional livelihood” despite the abundance of resources of their native lands (Sucharita, S., 2020). Due to a lack of employment opportunities, the community is also being exploited through credit debt, leading to migrant labor (Sucharita, S., 2020).

The data found was from reputable sources, however, there is little evidence showing specific cases of forced labor discrimination against the Chamar/Ravidas people in Bihar. Thus, the data quality was rated ⅔.

Sources

  1. SAHA, N., TAY, J. S. H., ROY, A. C., DAS, M. K., DAS, K., ROY, M., DEY, B., BANERJEE, S., & MUKHERJEE, B. N. (1992). Genetic Study of Five Populations of Bihar, India. Human Biology, 64(2), 175–186. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41464269
  2. Narender Kumar. (2000). Dalit and Shudra Politics and Anti-Brahmin Movement. Economic and Political Weekly, 35(45), 3977–3979. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4409928
  3. Kunnath, G. J. (2009, December 11). Smouldering dalit fires in Bihar, india – dialectical anthropology. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10624-009-9134-5
  4. Sahgal N. (2021, June 29). 4. attitudes about caste. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/attitudes-about-caste/
  5. Home | government of India. (n.d.-b). https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/
  6. Sucharita, S. (2020). Socio-economic determinants of temporary labour migration in Western Jharkhand, India. Millennial Asia, 11(2), 226-251.