Bihar: Battered by bias and years of apathy, Doms seek change

For the last 15 years, the Doms of Aguani say they have been voting for the arrow symbol of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). (Representational image)

There is a pool of water behind their ramshackle homes on uneasy stilts in Khagaria’s Aguani. That is where the solitary hand pump for the community of 200 stands. The water has turned a poisonous green, with garbage collected over the years and a sheet of mosquitoes over its surface. For years, all that the Doms here have asked from their politicians is to at least remove the water and level the land, especially after a five-year-old fell and drowned here 10 years ago.

“Once, they…