The holy city of
Banaras is probably older than the history and this evidently reflects from the
ethnicity and culture of the people living there. The tehzeeb and nazakat of
Banaras makes it apple of every tourist’s eye, who wishes to visit India.
However all this is put to shame when you look deeper into the current public
administration system of the city. The reason I am making this statement is
because of what I experienced while discussing the schedule of ‘Banega Swach
India’, a Campaign of NDTV in association with Dettol and PVCHR, to be held at
Assi Ghat in Banaras on 14th of December, with Shirin Shabana Khan
and Anup Shrivastava in the PVCHR’s office. Amidst the conversation, I heard a
shaky voice requesting to enter the office. She was an old lady from a
marginalized community from a remote village in the Varanasi district. Ms.
Shruti Nagvanshi, co-founder PVCHR requested her to take a seat and called for
a cup of hot tea for the old lady. After a couple of minutes of silence the
lady broke into tears and narrated her story. She was being harassed by her
neighbour for no fault of hers or her family. She said that she tried reaching
the local police administration but her requests fell on to the deaf ears
because the person who troubled her and her family, had strong influence in the
local police station. Ms. Shruti Nagvanshi patiently listened to her grief and
immediately tried reaching the Senior Superintendent Police office. The SSP
office was quick to respond to Ms. Nagvanshi’s request and assured of fair
justice and protection to the old lady and her family. The point that I am
trying to highlight here is that, the basic needs of a citizens like security
is jeopardized in our biased administrative system. People like Ms. Nagvanshi
are making strong difference in the society but for how long will this tyranny
of ill managed administration continue.
The weaver community
is still struggling to meet their basic necessities, cleanliness and hygiene is
gone for a toss from the banks of river Ganga, traffic and road transport
system is adding to the woes of the residents and many big and small notorious
activities take place in the district of Varanasi in broad daylight. This shows
that not much has changed in past 6 months in the city since Prime Minister
Narendra Modiji has been elected as Member of Parliament from the same
constituency. At the end of the day it is left for the citizens of Banaras and organizations
like PVCHR to stand tall for their rights and advocate for fair and transparent
administrative and legal system. The entire country is living in hope of Ache
Din, which to me appears to be a distant dream atleast for another 3-4
years for the citizens of Banaras.
