Jaunpur: As the debate over reservation for the Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribes in the private sector continues, two Dalits — a doctor and a businesswoman — have broken out of the casteist mould to assert themselves and chart a new course for their community in eastern UP.

In a region that is considered the crucible of caste politics, even amid the viral fever of casteism, there are signs of a slow fall in the temperature.

A hospital owned by a Dalit surgeon would have been unthinkable here a decade back. Today, 38-year-old Lal Bahadur Siddharth, a Dalit, is a polular doctor and surgeon in Jaunpur.

And he is not only curing health ailments, he is providing a cure to the disease of casteism too.

The doctor admits that quite a struggle has gone into making this happen. "I had to face a lot of struggle," admits Dr Siddharth.

When an untouchable doctor reads the blood pressure of a Brahmin, society’s health is definitely improving. Touch, that great taboo of Brahmanical society, becomes irrelevant in illness.

And this social transformation has been so smooth that even the panditiji is not complaining.

Says Virendra Kumar Upadhyay, a school principal: "As far as shastras are concerned, yes, I believe in caste. But between a doctor and a patient, there is no caste."

Dr Siddharth's 30-bed hospital was set up two years back. Some five to eight surgeries are conducted in the hospital daily. On an average, 70 patients visit Dr Siddharth everyday.

Dr Siddharth is not just a doctor of the human body, he’s a doctor of the society too. Thanks to the services that he has been rendering to his fellow citizens, the doctor has already become a symbol of change.

Also, an example of the many Dalits who are breaking out of the ghetto on the basis of their talent and sheer hardwork.

Caste is equally irrelevant for Usha Kiran, another Dalit. Owner of a gas agency in Kerakat, 37-years-old Usha is one of the many Dalits in the area who now own their own gas agencies and petrol pumps.

Says Usha, "Only when Dalits get educated and enter business and the service sector will they become economically independent and be able to break the walls of society."

Allotted by the ministry of petroleum, the gas agency has brought Usha money, power and respect. She has 3,800 customers and an annual turnover of a crore.

If anything, these are only two instances of a silent revolution in the cast belt of Uttar Pradesh, which is undergoing a transformation, slowly but surely.

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