Dalit Photography

In this canvas I want to snap the photos, Take The photos of Dalit homes, Dalit people, Dalit poverty and hunger, Scarcity and shortage of resources Zooming in, zooming out closely Seen from near, Taken from far. How are their houses Which but Indian models, Clay and straw and bamboo sticks made Structures and housings, How their poverty, living below the line Which but Indian poverty, If you have not, hear you the tales Of Indian poverty and hunger? Dalit houses hutment areas, shanty areas, Poor and dirty areas Without amenities and resources Living below the poverty line Under scarcity of food and livelihood, Nothing to eat, nothing o drink as clean water, Sleep they under the moonlight, Arise and awake they by the sunrise Or the bird chirrup. But Dalit photography is a photography Of Dalit people and Dalit homes, Dalit men and women and children, Poor people, poverty's children, Hunger's children, The dens of illiteracy and ignorance Where light is not, The dens of drunkenness and other evils. Dalit homes where you can see hunger, Where you can poverty, malnutrition, Death, disease and hunger, Dalit homes where you can scarcity, Shortage of food and materials, Where you can mark How the people go half-fed, half-clothed And now they can wear it too, In the past it was almost difficult to live. The poor country boys and girls crying, Crying for stale foot at daybreak, Crows cawing cleverly, Marking the crumbs of bread Into the aluminium bowl of the child Taking molasses and home-made bread But in the past we had just the earthen utensils, Women busy with their household works Taking out the hens, ducks, goats and sheep, Cleaning the sheds attached to, Going to bring water. The change is in it when plastic sheets were not, Now they can cover up the roofs from leaking, With the small-small palm leaf shaded or straw-thatched Under the canopy of the cottages, They used to pass on their days Taking palm juice, stale boiled rice, Collecting local spinach varieties, Going for fishing into the water bodies Or marshy and muddy plots. Small-small daughters married at a younger age, Small-small boys talking of marriage and wine, People working as housemaids, servants, Cleaners, fosters, cowboys, The hearth burns it almost for once And the day-time meal is cooked By putting in the haystacks, dry eaves Into the earthen oven smoking, Troubling the eyes and you go on puffing To blow fire extinguishing often For the dry sticks to be put into to support The dry leaves burning quickly and extinguishing. To clean muddy floors with a muddy water and cow dung paste Every morning is really a difficult job To clean the dung of the cattle And to live with them side by side In an attached shed in the vicinity of Or proximity sometimes smelling foul, What to say about such a life and living Which is but our India rural system And our houses had been as such