A rash of incidents of indiscriminate police shooting, atrocities against women and broken government promises, led Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra’s Bihar State Lok Samiti to organize a street picket in Patna, the state capital, one day last September.

The Lok Samiti activists chose to block a main junction near the city centre. Hundreds of women sat in the road and the traffic was blocked during peak hours. The activists carried banners and shouted slogans against the police and demanded an immediate audience with the state’s Chief Minister, Mrs Rabri Devi.

The demands included setting up a state commission for women; a commission for Dalits; a State Human Rights Commission; a special judicial system for women, and an all-women police station in each district headquarters. The activists also demanded the sacking of the guilty police officials, an inquiry into a  police firing incident at Chouparan and the police shooting at Ara, where CPI (ML) demonstrators were killed. Speakers such as Mr Girija Satish, Mrs Kranti Rashosh, Rupesh, and Akhtari Begum, blamed the government for inactivity and the worsening conditions in the state, plus its lack of respect for human rights.

The police tried to clear the protesters and reorganize the traffic, but the activists insisted on seeing the Chief Minister. A senior police officer threatened to arrest them, but all seemed indifferent. Eventually, the police relayed their request and Mrs Rabri Devi agreed to see a delegation.

A seven-member delegation then went to meet the Chief Minister and the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and the Director General of Police Mr K.M. Jacob was also present. Mrs Rabri Devi reaffirmed her government’s willingness to conduct the long-awaited panchayat (village) elections in April or May 2001. She assured the delegation that these basic units of self-rule would have meaningful powers. On atrocities against women, she expressed her sympathy and said that the Home Secretary is looking into the matter to see what action can be taken. The Chief Minister also assured the delegation that the formation of a women’s commission is under-way. The Lok Samiti delegation felt that the Chief Minister could only make promises, but she did invite them to call on her again. Depending on progress, they might well do that!