BHOPAL: A village in central Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha district is home to 40 "dead" people who walk and talk, breathe and laugh, though they are literally in tears.
In Khajuriya Jagir village, about 140 km from state capital Bhopal, in Kurwai tehsil of Vidisha district live at least 40 people who were shown as "dead" in government's digitized records. This is reminiscent of the painful saga of Bharat Lal Bihari in Eastern UP which inspired Satish Kaushik's 2021 movie, ‘Kaagaz.’
The 40 "dead" people include 50-year-old Guddi Bai and her 23-year-old daughter-in-law Rajkumari Bai, middle-aged Santosh Sharma and younger sibling Jitendra Sharma, teenager Ram Bhajan and young mother of four year old son Sushila Bai.
According to 19-year-old Ram Bhajan, the villagers, one after the another came to know, about their own "death" in the state government’s Samagra Samajik Suraksha Mission digital database records, consequently making them ineligible for benefits under various government schemes meant for economically weak, differently-abled, elderlies, married woman, girls, widows and abandoned women.
“Around 3-4 weeks back I came to know my Samagra ID had been deleted after me being bracketed as dead. One after another, around 40 residents of our village have found the same rude development, having happened to them. In my case, being declared dead in records has stopped me from pursuing further education,” he said.
While the cruel development has prevented Ram Bhajan from pursuing further education, similar development with 33-year-old Deepak Sharma, stopped his daughter’s admission in Class I of a CM Rise School. “We’ve been running from village sarpanch’s office in our village to Kurwai Janpad Panchayat CEO’s office and also to authorities at Vidisha district headquarters, but have only got verbal assurances. With the admission time getting over, my daughter couldn’t be enrolled in CM Rise School in the absence of me being alive in Samagra ID.”
Two brothers Santosh (45) and Jitendra Sharma (35) too are shattered after coming to know about having been declared dead in records and their Samagra ID having become non-functional. “I came to know about it, when I went to get my ID details recently for my daughter's admission in nursery classes. My brother Santosh’s family has been deprived of benefits under the government’s free ration scheme for economically weak families. All we’re getting since then from authorities are false assurances,” Jitendra said.
A few houses away 50-year-old Guddi Bai and daughter-in-law Rajkumari too have met with similar fate, now turning living ghosts. “Both me and my daughter-in-law have been declared dead in the Samagra ID. Owing to it, the admission of my grandchildren in schools hasn’t happened,” Guddi Bai said.
Guddi Bai’s neighbour, 27-year-old Sushila Bai, was eligible to be covered under the recently launched Rs 1000-monthly Ladli Behana Yojana of Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, but the rude development, has stopped her from getting benefits under the scheme meant for financially weak married women.
What does the Vidisha district collector have to say?
“As per primary information available to us, the development is the result of a fraud committed by one of the parties during the Panchayat Polls. I’m writing a letter to the district police superintendent to get the entire matter probed by the police’s cyber cell. We’ll soon get the technical error corrected,” Vidisha district collector Umashankar Bhargav said.
While the Vidisha district collector has assured to resolve the issue soon, it remains to be seen whether the 40 villagers actually get justice promptly or end up becoming subjects of some Bollywood flick, just like Lal Bihari, a famous living dead of East Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district inspired the making of 2021 movie ‘Kaagaz.’