In village Manguwal in Sangrur a contingent of dalit agricultural labourers embarked on a protest, under the leadership of the Zameen prapt sangarsh commitee. The issue was on the denial of place to throw away trash
For over 60 years the dalit labourers of Manguwal have relentlessly battled for rights promised to them for procuring panchayat land. However the capitalist classes obstructed and cut every move of the dalits to acquire land. At every stage they received patronage of the ruling class parties. For a period of 60 years they performed task of disposing trash, but were still driven away from their villages by ruling class backed landlords. They assured compensation to the dalits but fell back on their words.
Leaders Mukesh Mulaudh and Paramjit Longowal addressed the meeting, in detail summarising the conspiracy of ruling class elements to eradicate any measures to give land rights to dalit workers. They vowed to take the matter to the gram sabhas and led a protest outside the DPO.
Dalits poured into Sangrur because of unavailability of enough place in the houses to dispose garbage in their villages.
Not even 2 bighas of land were distributed to the agricultural labour community, with upper caste elements sabotaging their land allotments.
However small the gathering, it had qualitative significance, illustrating how the dalit agricultural is still completely marginalised or victimised They are waging a grim battle in confronting injustice.
Sarabjjit Kaur, Bhola Rani, Jarnail Singh, Bira Singh and Ajmer Singh also were participants.
Harsh Thakor has covered mass movements around India and frequently toured Punjab to study dalit movement
