Episode- 37: Panchayat Polls in the time of a Pandemic

The pandemic has brought a reckoning to our doorsteps. So say several prominent editorials in these past weeks. At Khabar Lahariya, reporting from the villages and small-towns considered synonymous with violence, deprivation and hollowed out infrastructure — an ‘inevitable’ fact of life for a country as large as India — the suffering the middle classes are newly experiencing, is no stranger. Every time KL reporters venture forth they hear a familiar refrain: “Sunwayi nahi karte” (They don’t give us a hearing).  These are the disasters of everyday Bundelkhand where response ideally comes from the local administration — the gram panchayat pradhan (the village Panchayat leader). But what we overwhelmingly hear: No hand-pump in the Dalit basti? No sunwayi. No FIR