Guest post by SHANKAR GOPALAKRISHNAN and TREPAN SINGH CHAUHAN

On April 11th, a memorial meeting was held at Gandhi Park, Dehradun. You probably haven’t heard of Sadhuram, the person for whom it was held. Thousands of people have indeed heard of him. But it reflects the divided world we live in – the world that Sadhuram fought to change – that it’s very unlikely that you are one of them.

Sadhuram was a Dalit, a mason and a resident of Jakhan, Dehradun. He was also the vice president of the Uttarakhand Nav Nirman Mazdoor Sangh, a union of unorganised sector workers. To the daily wage workers of Jakhan, he was a daily presence at the mazdoor chowk, the place where people stand for work in the morning; some of them affectionately referred to him as “mantri-ji.” Late on the night of March 26th, Sadhuram committed suicide.

Why did he do it? That question has many partial answers. On December 5th, 2014, his wife Geeta Devi died of kidney failure. Geeta was not one to give up easily; her death came after a long battle against a painful disease and the extortions of private doctors. That very night, Sadhuram’s younger son, Ravi, lay down on the tracks outside Dehradun station and committed suicide. Sadhuram was left an angry, saddened man, having lost the two most important people in his life. His remaining son cared little for either the union or Sadhuram. They had frequent fights, and his son often beat him. Nor was that the only atrocity in Sadhuram’s life. After Ravi’s death, he was entitled to Rs. 50,000 in compensation under the Building Workers’ Act; that 50,000 might have meant the difference between continuing abuse and independence. But for an entire year the Labour Department sat on the application, notwithstanding at least twenty meetings and even a personal direction from the CM.