Vanvasi Chetna Ashram
Built over 17 years
Razed down in 3 hours
Nothing spared to a quivering breath of life
Even a telephone tower was forced to bend and break
So that no Idea could change your life
Scrap worth Rs 1 lakh was sold after VCA was demolished
Nothing has changed
Neither have the government’s problems
Nor has my motivation to solve tribals’ problem
Commodes
Hand pumps
Dispensary
All faced an insecure government’s fury
A whole section of the red Earth is now decorated with cylindrical commodes, broken after a community toilet was razed
While gram sabha welcomed me
An aggressive police force surrounded me
All I could do was let go
As I cannot be pinned to a wall
A rogue state’s boots cannot crush my morale
Once adorning my wall was Vinoba Bhave’s photograph
The police tore it too, as it aced hungrily to get me my epitaph
Rooms now resemble a grave; but only bricks have been crushed -- no human spirit
The sky is still bright blue
And the evening sun renders it many hues
The clouds scatter themselves in billows
Much like the cloud of debris below
Water
Mid-day meals
Education
Equal wages
NREGA
Sanitation
17 years I strived
Another 17 and more I will still strive
To return dignity to life
With this dispensary now in a rubble, villagers have to hire a cab, to get to the nearest hospital which is 14 kms away, and then get fleeced of their meagre money bag by the apathetic doctors
As I sip only water today
And like millions of deprived brothers here
I keep nutrition at bay
I cannot be silenced
My independence cannot fenced
"This child is hungry for food; I am hungry to get justice for him."
My fear, if any, is a product of my own assumptions
My assumptions are none other than the immortality of my motivation