Dashrath Manjhi: A hero we need but don’t deserve
India is a country where it is very easy for people to forget about things. There are so many languages, so many types of cuisines, different cultures, and you can find them all in one single place. The country is growing, be it in terms of economy, income levels, population, or standard of living. Shining skyscrapers, expanding highways, international food chains and apparel brands right next door. There are so many things to take care of. Life is fast and most of the people are not even aware of what is happening in the neighbourhood. But just like an ostrich, digging your head in the sand and not being to see the hunter doesn’t mean that he (well, of course, there can be a female hunter, so he or she) isn’t there.
After independence, India was like an injured and bleeding elephant. The economy was bad, people had nothing to eat. Basic amenities like education, healthcare and industries were scarce. Almost seventy years after independence, life is still not very easy in India. Majority population living in rural areas and almost half the population living in urban areas is still struggling for the basic amenities. In “Human Development Index” report of United Nations, India ranks at 131, below than corruption hit Brazil and Turkey, which is under a dictatorial rule. Same is the condition of “Quality of life Index”, where we stand at 66 in a list of just 80 countries. Literacy rate (72% overall, female literacy rate is just at 62%) is far below even most of the developing nations. But this story is not about these numbers, most of us are already aware of the situation. This story is about how we as a society, as a nation and as a human being might have failed.
Before the release of the movie “Manjhi” in 2015, hardly any of us were aware of the name, Dashrath Manjhi. Few might have heard of the name when his name appeared on the popular tv show “Satyamev Jayate” hosted by Aamir Khan. This story is not about what extraordinary feat he did, no. This story is about asking ourselves a question, a man dug a road through a mountain for twenty-two years in a country where there is an elected government for doing the same. Question is, where was the administration, the elected representatives? Where was the media, and where were us? The irony is, he is not the only one who went through the agony of ignorance and disdain.
Dashrath Manjhi lost his wife to lack of medical care. Reason, the nearest medical centre was almost 70 kilometres away. So he took an oath, that no one else should share the same fate.Single-handedly, he dug a path 110 metres long, 9 metres wide and 7.6 metres deep through Gehlaur hills. And he did this by spending twenty-two years of his life, using only a hammer and chisel. Manjhi reduced the distance between Atri and Wazirganj from 55 kilometres to just 15 kilometres. Same is the story of Shyam Lal from Saja Pahad village in Chhattisgarh. The village was suffering from acute shortage of water and neither the villagers nor the local administration came for help. Even the MLA or the elected representatives were missing. That’s when a 15 years old came forward. Now 42 years olf, Shyam Lal dug a 15 feet deep pond for the village spending twenty-seven years of his life. Now the whole village is using the water from the pond. The MLA has announced a cash reward for him and the local administration has also promised to help Shyam Lal and villagers to develop the village further. Question is, in both the cases, where was the administration before? Why didn’t the administration, which is responsible for building roads, build that road when Falguni Devi, wife of Dashrath Manjhi, died in absence of medical care? Why didn’t the administration dug that pond when a whole village was suffering from acute shortage of water? Two men had to spend almost half of their lives for doing something for which there are departments, highly paid public servants and an elected government.
But then there is one bigger question. After all the media attention, you must have thought that the situation might have improved. But does it? Basanti Devi, the daughter-in-law of Dashrath Manjhi, whom Aamir Khan met in March 2014 for his TV show Satyamev Jayate, died in April 2014 because she couldn’t afford medical care. So in the 21st century, when we talk about the moon landing, we couldn’t even provide healthcare to the family of a man who spends his life building a road for this country and its people, then maybe we don’t deserve to have men like Dashrath Manjhi and Shyam Lal. After his death, we are all watching his life and the things he did on big screen, but have we really learned our lesson? Doesn’t seem like it. Maybe we even have lost the right to call ourselves human beings, because we are human by birth, but it takes a lot more to become a being, and caring for life of others is only one of such qualities.
