The Rat Eating Community: Musahar Community

Have you heard about Musahar community? Do you know that dalits which are considered to be the lowest category in caste are also sub divided in categories explaining their hierarchy levels? Isn’t this strange, the Musahar community which is literally the English translation of rat eating community have some incidents and facts like when the rat kept crawling over the arms of Mr. Phekan Manjhi's as he battled to pin it to the ground before he eventually managed to kill the rat with repeated blows to the head.
The execution had drawn applause from neighbours who huddled around the 60-year-old in a grimy courtyard outside the mud and straw hut. Further, another meal lined up for the Rat Eaters who are some of India's poorest people.
Mr Phekan is one among the 2.5 million Musahars - 'Rat Eaters' who are one of India's most marginalised communities and even the browbeaten low-caste Dalits of this place look down on them.
"It's one of the daily struggles for the routine meals and diseases like leprosy are an everyday reality," said Ms. Varghese, who was then awarded India's top civilian honour for her wonderful work.
"We sit at our homes all day with nothing to do. Some days we get little work at the farm, on other days we go hungry all day or catch rats and eat it with whatever amount of little grain we can get" Mr Manjhi told.
He added in his conversation that his workers went to the communities to get their young ones enrolled in schools. They are now linked to government skills and training projects to get them better employment opportunities.
Mr Rishidev also said that while in the past of the Musahars they ate rats to stave off their hunger; but the twist is that most of these now do this because of "cultivated taste and not the compulsion".
"Some among the older generations still eat rats due to the reason because it is like any other food which they have. Also reports suggest most of the younger generation don't eat it. Things and situations have improved a lot and we hope they will further change" he further added.
Musahar community is one of the most talked topics where we can clearly see the adverse effects of our caste system.

By: Prerana Sharma
Content: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/the-rat-eaters-of-india