News info :: Bangladesh Dalito Human Rights member and Substrata Dalito Janata’s executive Tatpuri James Biswas informed in a news conference that Bangladesh Dalito and Bonchito Janagoshthi Odhikhar protest (BDERM) must be saved from robbers. On December 9, 2023, at 11 a.m. in the Dhaka Reporters Unit Hall room, this conference was held, where James Biswas gave his speech from a written paper. Bhimpalli David Raju, organisation secretary, BDERM’s general secretary, Bodhankib Prema, the late BG Murti’s son, and other representatives of Dalito people were present at the conference.
The speakers said the present Dalito people in Bangladesh were brought here three times in the British era, from 1835 to 1850. Firstly, for tea garden jungle cleaning; second, as cleaners of the railway junction of Ishwardi; and lastly, as cleaners of Dhaka Municipality. At present, about 10 million Dolito people are living in Bangladesh, and most of them are considered untouchable due to their cleaning profession. They are regularly deprived of education, health services, social functions, cultural and religious functions, jobs, business, residency, and even during burials, they suffer extreme discrimination. Even if the degree of discrimination varies from one region to another, the Dolito go through suffering in their day-to-day lives. Although in the constitution of the Republic of Bangladesh it has been clearly defined that each and every citizen of the country reserves the right to be treated equally, 52 years of independence have passed, but the cruel fate of the Dolito people remains the same.
To create a strong protest against such discrimination, an organisation titled Bangladesh Dolito Human Rights (BDHR) was built in 2022 with the registration number of Govt. Registration No. 2829 (441). To acquire the rights of the Dolito people The late Dolito leader, Neta BG Murti, was the pioneer creator of this organisation and passed away on the 24th of 2006. And afterwards, the organisers kept the organisation running. Stepping with time, the organisation kept going forward. At that time, the executive At that time, the executive office was in 8/14 Block B, Lalmatia, Dhaka, 1207, where the garage of Norik Uddog NGO was used. In 2008, the fate of Bangladesh Dolito Human Rights (BDHR) took a turn when an organisation called One World Action provided donations to BDHR regarding its projects. But Nagorik Uddog’s chief executive, Jakir Hossain, played an evasive role, fooled the organisers of BDHM, and took over this project to fulfil his personal interests. As days passed, the leaders of BDERM started to lose their freedom of speech. Even Jakir started to fake that Nagorik Uddog works on behalf of the Dolito people, which is an absolute lie. Jakir kept the organisation running in his own way without following the regulations of BDERM. There are many instances when Jakir Hossain fired the descendants of the Dolito in order to erase the genuineness of the whole organisation.
Such an incident took place in May 2023 when Bhim Palli David Raju was sent out of Dhaka to a district-level organisational task of BDERM. But on his return, a notice of termination was thrown at him for the reason that he left the office without any notification to the office authority. Joke of the year! It was the office authority itself that sent David Raju out of Dhaka for the official task of providing the official budget. This incident is beyond relevance. Nagorik Uddog’s chief executive, Jakir Hossain, advertises by identifying
himself as the fate of the Dolito people. While the truth is that he is crushing the fate of the Dolito people, he also claims that his staff are the leaders of the Dolito people. One mentionable fact is that the coordinator of Dolito Rights projects cannot even do computer typing—not even a word! It is not surprising because he is a cousin brother of Jakir Hossain, earning 70,000 to 80,000 BDT per year as a salary. On the contrary, the descendants of the Dolito work in the lower posts with a maximum of 20,000 BDT per month, despite being Master Degree holders. The Dolito women working as community mobilizers earn only 7,000 BDT, which cannot even cover the accommodation expenses. No one can raise their voice, as threats are common from the authorities.
The witnesses regarding the faults of Jakir Hossain mentioned above are many. Including ex-chairman Mr. Babulal Sardar, ex-chairman Brave Freedom Fighter Mukul Ranjan Shikdar, ex-chairman Sunil Kumar Mridha, ex-general secretary Milon Das, ex-organisational executive Asok Das, ex-women-related affair executive Shanti Mondol, ex-binary general executive Suraj Kumar Das, ex-information and research executive Advocate Narayan Karmakar, ex-cultural executive Dilip Bashfore, Nilfamari district’s ex-general executive Nanda Kumar Bashfore, BDERM’s ex-superintendent Tatpuri James Biswas, and many others.
Thus, we demand a full stop to Jakir Hossain’s awkward policy of using the Dolito people’s names and using them as a product that he can sell to pursue his own interests and fill the pockets of his family members. We hope for the support of all the stakeholders to protect the oppressed Dolito people, who live an extremely normal life.
To mention, on November 21, 2023, a rally was held in front of the Press Club in Dhaka to draw the attention of culprit Jakir Hossain, but yet no response from him!