By Matters India Reporter
Raipur, Jan 26, 2020: Rajender Sail, who helped in the release of some 25,000 Dalit bonded laborers, passed away on January 26 in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state.
He was a poet, political activist and reformer.
He has been one of the legends of the Human Rights movement in the country. His association with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has marked an era of engaging on the questions of Human Rights at the highest level in India.
One of the early members of PUCL, he was its National Organizing Secretary from early 1980s until late 1990s. His association with rural bonded labor led to the popular case on bonded labor in the Supreme Court of India in the 1980s that led to the release of nearly 25,000 Dalit castes based bonded laborers in Chhattisgarh. Later he was the Supreme Court-appointed Commissioner on bonded labor issues.
He guided PUCL Chhattisgarh in the most difficult phase during the 2000s when its then General Secretary Binayak Sen was arrested under anti-national and sedition laws. He was much instrumental in the recent struggles for demilitarization of Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
His key role in drafting PUCL’s draft bill on Protection of Journalists that was submitted to the government of Chhattisgarh and the memorandum for the release of Adivasis falsely imprisoned under the pretext of being Maoist associates from various jails in Chhattisgarh cannot be ever forgotten.
His long-standing association with Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha and late Com. Shankar Guha Niyogi also tells us stories of his close association with the working-class movement.
He supported the movement in almost all its battles and crucial historical phases – right from the workers strike to police firing to assassination of Com. Niyogi and till last.
He along with Bishop George Ninan has been the key architect and founder of the Indian National Social Action Forum (INSAF) and led it from the front in its initial decade. A long-time association with Program for Social Action (PSA) had provided several insights and new dimensions to the very context of Social Action.
A core and committed Christian believer, he emerged through the winds of liberation theology in the late sixties while he was still a student leader in Allahabad associated with the Students Christian Movement of India (SCM).
After graduating in Law (LLB) he moved to Raipur, Chhattisgarh where he founded the Raipur Churches Development and Relief Committee (RCDRC).
He remained the rest of the life in Chhattisgarh working among the poorest of poor and oppressed and marginalized. He had argued many cases in various courts of India, seeking justice for the unrepresented ones.
Sail remained a wall against repression, a hope amidst hopelessness, a comrade to the fellow travelers and a voice to the voiceless.
He had suddenly fallen sick after the shocking news of his longtime friend, comrade and associate Abdul Jabbar Khan in November 2019. He then survived a massive heart attack and a paralytic stroke. Since then his body functions were reduced, his mobility curtailed.
His wife a longtime activist on women’s rights across India and sons Akshay and Agnay (both lawyers) and their families have survived this tough time.
“Lost a close friend, Sail, poet, political activist, reformer, and perhaps above all, a comrade of Shankar Guha Niyogi in the struggle for Chhattisgarh and the rights of tribals,” said John Dayal, a follow social activist.
According to Dayal, Sail was an institution in Raipur, and in his youth, in Allahabad where he was a Church of North India youth leader committed to rousing the social conscience of the community and religious leadership.”