In a country where people talk about freedom and liberal mindset, caste system and untouchability is a harrowing reality in several parts of the nation. In 2019, it is perhaps difficult to imagine but untouchability is a glaring, tangible reality.

We read how untouchability is a wrong practice, we debate and argue, we write about it, but how many of us have really done something to bring about a change?

In the year 2005, Sanjeev Kumar from Delhi, an MBA graduate, was pursuing a career in modelling. A young man of 24, he was the youngest of five siblings. In the same year, after his sister’s mother-in-law’s demise, he had to visit Khagaria zilla in Bihar to attend a gathering arranged in her memory. Little did he know that his visit to Bihar was going to change his life forever.

His encounter with the Dom caste

During the gathering, a traditional ‘bhoj’ was arranged for the guests. Good food overwhelmed everyone, and as usual, a lot of food simply went into the dustbins.

“I was taking a stroll after the meal, and in a dark corner of an empty space, I saw some people scavenging the dustbins and eating the leftovers dumped into it. When I asked them, they told me they were treated as untouchable and they were not allowed to eat with the rest of the people. I was left speechless,” Sanjeev said in a conversation with The Logical Indian.

He immediately went back to have a word with his sister and her father-in-law.

“They told me that these people were untouchable and belonged to the Dom caste, and were not allowed to mix with society. I was not allowed to go near them either, he told me. However, I returned to Delhi with my parents but the sight of these people eating leftovers refused to leave me. I was scarred. Wherever I went, the picture followed me. I could not walk on the ramp. I started to dislike everything and everyone around me. Until that day, I did not know the chilling reality that untouchability was,” he said.

Sanjeev has been fighting against untouchability for 14 years

Sanjeev had enough of Delhi and his house. He had left his soul in the villages of Bihar, with the people who have never tasted freedom.

“I told my parents I wanted to go to Bihar and do something for them. I wanted to fight for their rights. But it was risky, my parents told me. The whole thing was political. It took me a year to convince my parents that staying here, going to expensive restaurants, eating good food had become impossible for me. In the same country, I felt like we and the untouchables were living in two different worlds. How and why were they different? What had they done? What was their fault? I had to find the answers to the questions that had troubled me for a year, and I had to erase the horrid picture that was embedded in my head, once and forever,” he said.

The beginning of the journey

In 2006, Sanjeev simply left his home. With a couple of clothes in a small bag, he sat on a train that would take him to Bihar. He had decided to put up at his sister’s place.

“I knew I could not tell them the real reason why I was here. They would not accept it. So I told him that I had simply come to visit them, and they were happy. At the back of my mind, I had a plan,” said Sanjeev.

Every morning, Sanjeev would leave for the area where the people from the Dom caste lived. He began learning about their lives. They survived on leftovers, hardly bathed and had no connection with the outer world. The only work they did was to clean toilets and even if they touched a tap, people washed it before using it. He remembered the meal they had had last year. His sister’s father-in-law had spent lakhs of rupees to arrange the meal for so many people, and yet what these people got were leftovers from the dustbin.

“However, in such a small area, words spread like wildfire. Soon, villagers saw me bathing, teaching and spending my days with these people. As expected, they complained to my sister’s family. They warned me, but I told them I could not give up on my mission. What is happening here is wrong, I told them. They are human beings just like you and me. They are made of flesh and blood. They feel pain, hunger and dismay just like we do. It’s wrong and I will have to win the battle,” Sanjeev said

Finally, Sanjeev was turned out of the house. Helpless, he went to his grandfather’s house in another village nearby. His grandfather was dead, but his father’s brother and his son lived their. They took him in.

“They took me in, but not for long. As words kept spreading about me, they had planned a trap for me. I came back home one day and saw people crying. And I saw a dead body on the floor,” he said. The villagers had fed his cousin poison. They had told his cousin that if he took a little bit of it, he would be fine, but he died. The plan was to put the blame on Sanjeev.

Sanjeev formed a group called Bahishkrit Hitkari Sangathan to fight against untouchability “Everybody knew …