AMBEDKARNAGAR: A black rugged cloth wrapped around his head, Jwala Prasad hesitantly points at a cluster of brightly coloured houses at a distance. "Woh Brahmanon ke makan hain... (those are the houses of Brahmins)," he says. Prasad's distinct caste assertion stems from his own social background - he's a Dalit. "Hum achhoot hain...isliye yahan koi nahi aata (No one comes here as we are untouchables)," he says.
Welcome to Daulatpur, a Dalit village in Ambedkarnagar, once the large caste laboratory of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. Carved out of Faizabad district (now Ayodhya) in 1995 by then chief minister Mayawati, Ambedkarnagar goes to poll in the sixth phase on Thursday. Anchored around swathes of mustard and sugarcane fields, the village, however, betrays its own name ('daulat' means wealth) and is dotted with shanties and mud-baked houses with hardly any basic facilities. Youth loiter around without work or employment. Women face social and health issues. Yet, they tend to keep themselves politically relevant.
