The birth of the pahra

by Kanti Kumar

On June 12, 1992, gangsters looted a house in Maulanachak in Bhagalpur and raped the women living there. Shocked by the brutal crime, local residents formed the Maulanachak Welfare Society with the aim of keeping anti-social elements out of their locality. One of the methods they evolved was the pahra system, which requires the society’s male members to take turns at guard-duty in the locality each night.

The society prpeares a weekly duty roster, which assigns pahra duty to each male residents one night each week. Abiding by the rota is compulsory and failure to report for duty without prior notice draws a fine of Rs. 21. Not participating at all in the pahra system without a satisfactory reason can result in social ostracism.

People who undertook pahra initially faced stiff oppostion from the underworld and were even attacked physically at times till the society warned the criminal elements to put an end to their anti-social activities. Those who ignored the warning were thrown out of the locality. Local welfare society general secretary Mohammed Maneer Khan contends no crime has occurred in Maulanachak since June 1992.

The pahra society has also solved personal and inter-family disputes, helped the ill and aged when they needed emergency aid at night and kept a check on the pilferage of wagons from the Bhagalpur railway stockyard. No dispute has been referred to the police or to the courts from many of these localities in the last several months. The society now plans to start literacy classes and job-oriented training schemes.

Following Maulanachak’s example, pahra has begun in more than 45 localities.