Still Waiting for Justice: The Unheard Story of Tanya Ram, a dalit from Chopal..
CHOPAL(SHIMLA): For Tanya Ram, an 82-year-old Dalit farmer from Aahnog village in Kupvi Tehsil, in Chopal sub-division, Independence Day comes and goes, but freedom and justice remain elusive.
Born five years before India gained independence in a dalit family, Tanya Ram’s life has been a relentless struggle.
It has been a fight not against colonial rulers or foreign oppressors, but against the apathy of his own well-off people and the hollow promises of a state government system that has failed him.
Tanya Ram, one of eleven siblings, was once full of hope. Back in 1975, the SDM of Chopal sanctioned him a plot of 5 bighas and 2 biswa of land.
The promise was documented in an official letter that he has kept close to his chest for nearly 50 years—a piece of paper that’s his only proof of the land that was supposed to change his life.
But that land never came. The letter is now faded, much like the dreams of a better life that once sparkled in his eyes.
For the last 20 years, Tanya Ram has been running from one office to another, trying to get what was rightfully his.
He has knocked on the doors of the SDM in Chopal and the Tehsildar in Kupvi more times than he can count, each time met with indifference or empty assurances.
The land that was promised to him has been encroached upon by someone else—someone with connections, power, and the ability to twist the system to their advantage.
Tanya Ram’s family has grown—he now has over 28 members, spanning three generations, all of whom are crammed onto the meager 3 bighas of land they own.
Life is hard, and the land that was supposed to be their escape from poverty has become a haunting reminder of the system's failure.
Tanya Ram belongs to the landless Dalit community. They were supposed to benefit from the Himachal Pradesh state government’s land reform policies- Nautor Land- but instead have been left to fend for themselves.
SDM office has been telling and turning him saying "his file is missing". In fact his file is one of over 50 such files that have mysteriously disappeared over the years from this office since 1970s or so, informed Chopal Bar lawyers.
Each time he visits the SDM office, he is told to go to the Tehsildar; each time he visits the Tehsildar, he is told to go back to the SDM.
When he shows the authentic proof of his land and that now has been grabbed by someone else, Tehsidar Kupvi told him to lodge an FIR.
He went to the Nerwa police station for the same, but police tell him it’s a matter for the revenue authorities.
Everyone passes the buck, and no one takes responsibility. Tanya Ram, with no money, no political backing, and no influence, is left alone in his fight for justice.
His small, wrinkled face carries the weight of years of hardship, and his eyes, soaked in tears, tell a tale of unspoken sorrow.
He met with HimbuMail in Chopal, where he had come yet again to trace his file at the SDM office. But he got the same big No.
The journey from his remote Aahnog village to Chopal is over 155 km—an arduous trip that drains whatever little money his family can scrape together from their meager earnings as laborers.
Despite his age and frailty, Tanya Ram makes this trek in the hope that perhaps this time, someone will listen. But each visit ends the same—with empty promises and no action.
He has tried to get legal help, but the advocates in Chopal demand fees he simply cannot afford.
The police at Nerwa told him they couldn't lodge an FIR because it's a revenue matter, leaving him trapped in a bureaucratic maze that offers no escape.
The system that should protect and serve the vulnerable has instead become an impenetrable fortress, where only those with influence and wealth find justice.
As the nation celebrates another Independence Day, Tanya Ram’s struggle continues—a fight not for freedom from colonial rule, but for freedom from the chains of exploitation and injustice within his own tehsil and SDM subdivision.
His tale is not just his own; it’s the story of countless others in Himachal Pradesh who suffer in silence, waiting for a justice that may never come.
The corrupt machinery that has left Tanya Ram languishing is not just an indictment of a few officials; it’s a damning reflection of a corrupt system that has lost its way.
While the powerful celebrate in grandeur, the forgotten souls like Tanya Ram continue to fight for the basic dignity that was promised to them long ago by the founding fathers of our Constitution yet remains as distant as ever.
Our PMs and CMs talked about poor and removal of poverty.
But poor like Tayan Ram will perhaps never get justice. They will perhaps continue to languish to death with a heavy heart.
But Tanya says he will look for his piece of land under Sun in Kupvi till his death.
