I'm only a living corpse!

Just a few years back, Laxmi Orang's world came close to being ripped apart. For the moment, life for her was all anguish and pain. But she refused to cower down! And it was that resolution alone which ultimately helped her to find a cause worth living for. Ironically it was the very cause that once plunged her to the utter depth of gloom and despair from where she has been struggling to crawl back ever since. Laxmi orang, the adivasi girl, who was stripped, chased and brutally assaulted by a marauding mob in broad daylight on the street of Guwahati on November 24, 2007, will start a six day fast at Dispur last gate, just a few yards away from the Assam Secretariat complex, on 13 february demanding justice to her people and herself.

Her other demands include scheduled tribe status for the adivasis and tea tribes of the state, enhancement of wages of tea garden workers from Rs 70 to Rs200 a day, resceduling of duty hours for the tea garden workers and rehabilitation of adivasi families displaced during the ethnic riots that occurred in the late 90's.

Coincidently the venue she has chosen this time to stage her demands is only a short distance away from the place where she got stripped naked and roughened up at the hands of a rampaging, marauding mob on that fateful day of November 24, 2007, when a protest rally organised by All Assam Adivasi Association on the central Beltola locality of the city culminat into an ugly and violent clash between the demonstrators and the locals. More than 20 people were killed, hundreds were injured and many of them are in critical condition. Laxmi, who came to participate in the rally from her village in Sonitpur district was disrobed and severely beaten up by some local goons.

Next morning all the local news papers carried screaming headlines of that bizarre incident and the photo of a girl, in full flight and without a streak on her, fleeing from the glare of an angry marauding mob. Overnight Laxmi Orang became the face of one of the most exploited and oppressed communities on earth.

Laxmi's bodily scratches soon healed. But there was no escape from the unseen pain, and anguish that kept on knawing her somewhere deep inside. But instead of going on hiding, she decided to fight back. "If I'm alive now it is because I've decided to sacrifice my life to the cause of my people. I'm determined to keep fighting for the rights ofmy people. I want justice for my people. I want them free from the shackles of drudgery and exploitation." She told TSI.

Apparently with time she will recover from that trauma. But something still rankles deep inside her. When she thinks of that incident her heart fills with hatred for those perpetrators. 'They have ruined my life. I'm only a corpse now, moving without a life. They should be brought to book and punished. That will be my only solace.' She told with a sigh.

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I'm only a living corpse!

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