DARBHANGA, Bihar — Far away from the high-decibel political campaigns in India’s parliamentary elections, a group of semi-naked children frantically search for something to eat in the marshland of their village in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.
These children belong to the Musahar community (“Musahar” meaning “rat eaters” in Bhojpuri), a socially marginalised community placed at the bottom rung of India’s hierarchical caste system.
About 250 families from the community have been living in Kubaul Village in Darbhanga district for the past 150 years.
“Earlier our meals were dependant on the availability of rats and the grains that we would procure from the rat holes,” Malhu Sada, 74, a member of the community, told Al Jazeera.
“However things are changing for some families as their children have gone to different states to work. We now catch rats mostly during the harvesting season.”
The state government has accorded them Maha Dalit status, which makes them eligible for various government schemes that have failed to lift the community out of poverty and backwardness.
