“People belonging to the Yadav community threaten to evict us from our lands”, says Kamala Devi, a member of one of the 50 Dalit families residing in Dhakwal Bigha village. These people have not received their documents regarding ownership of the land they have been living on for the last 150 years.

In 2013-14, Government of Bihar declared that they will give 3 decimals of land to the landless villagers residing in Gaya district of Bihar. According to a preliminary survey conducted by the State Department of Revenue and Land Reforms, in 2012, as many as 2.10 lakh Mahadalit families were identified as families without homestead land.And as on March 2014, land has been distributed to 2.22 lakh families, as against a target of 2.47 lakh families, involving 6641 acres of land.

Despite these highlighted figures, the truth is that even most of these families that have received land face the risk of being evicted from them anytime as they do not have documents to prove their ownership. That is why in Dhakwal Bigha village of Bihar, the local bullies have been harassing and threatening them to leave their homes.Community Correspondent Amit wishes to stop such instances of harassment in Dhawkal Bigha village and appeals that the paperwork for ownership of the land is made available to these people at the earliest. This will let the community live in peace on their own land, which is all that they want.