Pratima Paswan is the PART III’s Bihar State Co-Ordinator. This article was originally published on Behanbox, you can access the full article here.
For me, hope means healing day after day, a spirit that is broken and bruised, and making it resilient enough to continue my work. There is no day when I’m not disappointed: it might be due to some stress at home, or in the office, or due to the injustices we see everyday in the legal system. All of this together takes a toll. But when I wake up in the morning, I feel fresh, energised. Main har din ka dukh raat mein vaise hi chhod deti hu, aur kaam mein lag jaati hain.
My day starts before dawn around 5 and the hectic schedule continues until 9:30-10 pm at least. At Part III, I’m working to increase access and reach of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. People think of legal support for the SC/ST Act as compensation-related work only; they think if an aggrieved person reaches out to us, we just have to do a fact-finding report and get them compensation. But I work on giving them legal advice, helping them with a lawyer who can help fight their case, and getting them fair compensation. I also work with related government officials such as the SC/ST welfare departments to organise training. With them, I often organise legal camps at panchayat levels to understand legal cases and meet families to offer legal aid. I also interview people who have worked on the SC/ST Act to understand the challenges in the design and implementation of the law, and document this with our team.
I study and write in the morning, then visit the client’s office if we have a case, go to the court some days, or continue with office work before returning home. I find a lot of happiness in my work because it holds a lot of meaning for me. For me hope means to approach every day like it’s a new beginning, and direct the energy to the work I’m inspired to do.
Books often give me comfort to move forward. I adored Sushila Takabhaure’s Shikanja ke Dard; I’m doing Ramnika Gupta’s books right now. But more than that, I take strength from people in real life. I look at my family, namely my father and grandmother. I think of my community, the people who feel vanquished everyday but still continue. I’m disappointed the most by the system, but I’m inspired every day by these people around me who live on: they work, provide for themselves, find joy in whatever shape.
In 2025, I hope to work on and push past challenges that have remained stuck in the system for so long, by uniting with the community as a collective. Drug use and addiction has been rising among young people in Bihar. When it is spoken about by the media and leaders, people sensitise the story as a singular instance, but no one mentions drugs, the scale of addiction, or how young people are killing their families, their girlfriends due to intoxication. There are deaths everyday. This was not the case 15 years ago, but now, this addiction has swept through every house and young people have become drug addicts with no past or future. How do we address this, how do we challenge the power and force of mafias? Yeh bahut mazbut log hain, inse ladh paana mere akele ki bass ki nahi hain.
If different people with influence, such as the media and official authorities work together on this, then maybe people will document the pain and violence of women (including widows) who see their children losing their life to addiction. Nobody acknowledges this grief. What gives them hope every day to continue living, I think about this every day.
The government doesn’t want anyone to raise this issue; those who say something receive threats. This is a daunting task, but in 2025, I want to work with women and people in my community to advance this issue, to give voice to this crisis, to write about this. I hope I’m able to do it.
As told to Saumya Kalia.