Remembering the Musahar – the poorest of the poor
One of our closest friends is Cindy Berman who is Senior Social Development Advisor in the British Government’s Department For International Development (DFID) . She has responsibility for DFID projects in a group of south-east Asian countries ranging from Afghanistan to Vietnam. Last week, she was in India and returned just in time to attend our 30th wedding anniversary.
During this visit to India, Cindy visited a Musahar hamlet in the Baghakhal village in the Gaighat block of Muzaffarpur district in the northern state of Bihar.
The Musahar community is one of the most marginalised communities in India and they are the poorest amongst the poor. The Musahar community is found in the states of Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and north Madhya Pradesh. In Bihar the Musahars have an estimated population of about 4 million individuals (mid way between the populations of Wales and Scotland).
You can read an account of Cindy’s visit here.
This DFID project is an illustration of why the UK, even in a time of austerity, needs to provide aid and support, even to a country developing as fast as India.