In M.P.’s Duglai, a remote hamlet, unprecedented civic push follows a horrific crime

Duglai village in Balaghat district sees development after gang-rape incident, sparking debate on civic services and justice.

It’s early morning in Duglai, a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district, and around a dozen residents are huddled around two electricians busy installing power meters outside the house of a resident, Shyamlal Tekam. Above them, a third electrician is replacing power cables damaged several decades ago with new lines.

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Duglai is located deep inside the forests of Balaghat, which was last month removed from the Union Home Ministry’s list of the districts “most-affected” by left-wing extremism and notified as a “district of concern”, suggesting that Maoist influence in the area is on the wane.

Till 10 days ago, the village was isolated from the rest of the country. Except for a few weeks nearly 12 years ago, when electricity poles and cables were laid for the first time, it has never had electricity. “The cables got damaged within a few weeks and were never replaced,” says Mr. Tekam. It has also never been connected with the State road network. But the 130-odd Gondi-speaking residents here, most of whom live in mud houses with thatched roofs, have seen a flurry of activity over the past few days, with senior the district officials, police officers, and political leaders making frequent visits and supervising the large-scale civic infrastructure overhaul, which includes a plan to lay a road connecting Duglai with a link road built just six months ago.

While the administration says that the works are part of the Centre’s Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA) and the Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (RCPLWEA) schemes, many Duglai residents claim that the civic revamp started only after an outcry following the gang-rape of four village residents — three minors and a woman — last month.

The incident happened around 1.30 a.m. on the intervening night of April 23 and 24, when four minor girls and a woman, accompanied by their uncle, were returning from a wedding in the neighbouring Thakurtola village located two kilometres away. The group was accosted by seven men who had chased them on motorcycles from the venue of the event. As per the police, the accused beat Mr. Chamru, gang-raped the four victims, and fled.

The six Duglai residents returned to the village around 4 a.m. and shared their ordeal with others. On the morning of April 24, the victims’ parents, along with residents of Thakurtola, approached the family members of the accused in Bhagatpur, 3.5 kilometres away, but were allegedly turned away.