Living With Katav

Abstract

newline Living With Katav : Experiences of the Musahar Community in the Gandak newline River Basin, Bihar is a study on the recurrent floods, katav (erosion of the river banks) and newline multiple displacements with special reference to the Musahars, a community considered one newline of the lowest in socio-economic parameters. Aspects like the long-term impact brought upon newline by social-exclusion-led discrimination, exploitation and injustice on the marginalised in the newline post-disaster setting seemed to be largely missing. Thus, this study has been an attempt to newline bring the narratives from the periphery to the fore-front by understanding Musahars who, newline with pre-existing socio-economic vulnerabilities, live with katav. newline The aim of the study was primarily to explore the context of katav as experienced by newline the Musahars. It also tried understand their lived experiences and analyses the vicious cycle newline of vulnerability in the disaster context. The study also examined the Musahars experience newline of the State, in living with katav and asserting their rights and entitlements. newline Adopting a phenomenological framework, the study attempted to bestow meaning newline to the life world of the Musahars who were subject to a prolonged misery and agony. The newline study explored the long- lasting negative impacts of the phenomenon of katav on their lives newline which makes katav a disaster . newline It used purposive heterogenous sampling, with the newline application of the principle of maximum variation for data gathering. The study was newline conducted over a period of five years and carried out in different phases (floods and non- newline flood times). Multiple theoretical lenses have been applied to unearth and understand the newline phenomenon. newline The Musahars went through the experience of being uprooted , living in an ambiguous, newline broken and dislocated state of liminality. They go through distressing experiences of newline survival and sustenance, including the struggle for an address and identity. Their continued newline plight and despair find expressions in their narratives such as, lagta hai ki sari duniya kaxiii newline gam is nadi ke rup me hamere liye aya hai (it looks as though the grief of the whole world newline has come to us in the form of this river). Their experience of the State seems to be expressed newline like, Eha Sarkar urkar kuch nahi hai? (Here there is no government). newline Being unprecedented, unexpected and uncertain the katav events often cause newline severe stress which aggravate with longer duration and prolonged negative impacts. In spite newline of having to encounter the raw realities of structural violence, political-bureaucratic nexus, newline with no other option left, they still turn to the every-day state . As a response to the apathy newline of the state and agencies, political-bureaucratic nexus and structures and systems of newline exclusion and oppression, they formed themselves into a collective called, Vistapit Mukti newline Vahini (Liberation Movement of the Displaced) demanding homestead land. Inspired as a newline convergence of the ideals of Gandhi-Ambedkar and JP, this grass-root movement stood out newline as a beacon of emancipation and empowerment. Their collective struggle, identity and newline assertion is expressed as jamin mile, ya, na mile, ladai jari rakhem (whether we get land or newline not, we shall continue fighting). newline Government parameters for the katav affected seem to be still very broad and newline general, occasionally recognising them as mere flood victims who deserve minimum relief newline occasionally. The lived experiences of the Musahars assert the need for a specific context- newline based approach, taking into consideration a social transformative agenda in the planning and newline implementation of DRR and DRM programmes. newline The framework that emerged from the study, namely Post-Disaster-Transformative newline Framework is discussed with the implications for praxis to help in the inclusion of the newline excluded .