ALAMPUR GONPURA, INDIA – The rat kept crawling over Phekan Manjhi’s arm as he battled to pin it to the ground before he eventually managed to kill it with repeated blows to the head.

The execution drew applause from neighbours huddled around the 60-year-old in a grimy courtyard outside his mud and straw hut. Another meal lined up for the Rat Eaters – some of India’s poorest people.

Phekan said it would take 15 minutes to prepare the rat stew, as he dissected the animal with his fingernails.

“Almost everyone here loves this and knows how it’s prepared,” he added. Phekan is one of about 2.5 million Musahars – ‘Rat Eaters’ – one of India’s most marginalised communities.

Even the browbeaten low-caste Dalits look down on them.

“They are the poorest amongst the poorest and rarely hear about or get access to government schemes,” said Sudha Varghese, who spent three-decades working among Musahars in the northern state of Bihar, where most live and survive as dollar-a-day labourers.

RAT EATER MINISTER

“It’s a daily struggle for the next meal and diseases like leprosy are an everyday reality,” added Varghese, who was awarded India’s top civilian honour for her work.

Phekan’s neighbour in the village of Alampur Gonpura, 28-year-old Rakesh Manjhi, bemoaned his life.

“We sit at home all day with nothing to do. Some days we get work at the farm, on other days we go hungry or catch rats and eat it with whatever little grain we can get,” Rakesh told AFP.

“Governments may have changed but nothing has changed for us. We still eat, live and sleep as our ancestors,” said Phekan as he took the roasted rat off the fire and poked the tender meat.

He cut the flesh with his hands into a bowl and added mustard oil and salt. The feast disappeared in seconds as a dozen men and half-naked children grabbed what they could.

“Nothing but education can change our lives and future,” said Jitan Ram Manjhi, who in 2014 became the first Musahar chief minister of any Indian state. His nine-month tenure heading Bihar, one of India’s most populous states, is considered a huge achievement for the Musahars.

“My community is so downtrodden that I think even government records don’t yet show its real numbers, which could easily be around eight million,” Jitan Ram added.

TRAINING FOR LIFE

As a child, the former minister herded cattle for a rich landowner who employed his parents as labourers.

“They were almost like bonded labourers, getting one kilogram of grain for each day’s work. Even today, things haven’t changed much for many,” he added.

While there are well-intentioned oest programmes are often privately-run – like the Shoshit Samadhan Kendra residential school for Musahar boys on the outskirts of the state capital Putna.

“I started the school around a decade back with only four students and today it has 430, from remote Musahar communities across the state,” founder J.K Sinha told AFP.

He discovered how Musahars live while on a police raid as a young officer four decades ago.

“They were cramped in a small hut with pigs and the filth. It was shocking. Inhumane. I can’t forget it,” Sinha said.

R.U Khan, the school principal, said the Musahars face discrimination, seclusion and squalor wherever they gather.

“Most still only work as farm labourers who are forced to catch rats or snails in fields and scavenge for grain if the crop fails,” Khan said.

Out of 430 pupils at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, 117 lost their fathers at an early age.

“Once here, it takes us at least a month to teach them the most basic personal and social skills – like using toilets, personal hygiene, washing hands or eating food,” Khan said.

The regular education only starts after. But once given a chance, the boys are proud to get the opportunity to improve their lives.

Bihar’s Welfare Department Minister Ramesh Rishidev insisted that life has improved for the Musahars.

“We’ve been working hard with the different communities, which includes the Musahars,” the minister told AFP.

“Our workers go to the communities to get their young enrolled in schools. They are linked to government skills and training projects to get them employment opportunities,” he added.

Rishidev said that while in the past the Musahars ate rats to stave off hunger, most now do so out of a “cultivated taste and not compulsion.”

“Some from the older generation still eat rats because it is like any other food they have. Most of the younger generation don’t eat it. Things have improved and will further change,” he added.

Many Shoshit Samadhan Kendra boys are the target of jokes when they return to their villages for holidays however.

“We often hear stories how their village friends taunt them to catch rats or scavenge for other food with them, like they used to earlier. And under pressure, some of them do,” Khan said.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) plans to launch an investigation into Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan’s possession of what appears to be an extravagantly luxurious watch, which has not been declared in his assets.

NACC acting secretary-general Worawit Sukboon yesterday said the anti-graft body would start the investigation immediately as it was an issue of public interest.

The NACC, which was appointed by the junta’s handpicked legislators, last year cleared suspects over procurement irregularities after a scandal involving the military-run Rajabhakti Royal Park.

Political activist Srisuwan Janya said he also planned to file a petition with the NACC today regarding Prawit’s watch, which appeared to be a Richard Mille, which would have cost between Bt4 million and Bt10 million, and was not included in his asset declarations in 2014.

Depending on the results of the investigation, Prawit could be found to have wrongfully concealed assets – and also for possessing irregular wealth, as the 72-year-old retired general has at least Bt87 million in assets despite working only for the military and being unaffiliated with any businesses, Srisuwan said.

Prawit came under fire after a photograph of him shading his eyes from the sun went viral on Monday, with social media users drawing attention to his diamond ring and watch.

The junta’s number-two leader yesterday said he would clarify issues related to his possession of the watch to the NACC directly.

“It’s no use explaining to the media. I will just take one shot with the NACC,” he said. Politicians in Thailand and abroad have fallen into trouble before after being shown wearing expensive timepieces.

In 2013, then-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was criticised for owning a Bt2.5-million watch that was not declared to the NACC. During the investigation, Yingluck said she had sold the watch before entering the political arena – and used the money to buy diamonds. The investigation remains incomplete.

A year later, Indonesia’s then-military commander, General Moeldoko, was also spotted wearing high-end watches, including what looked like a Richard Mille RM 011 Felipe Massa Flyback “Black Kite”, which would have cost more than Bt3 million. Moeldoko attempted to dispute the criticism by throwing the watch on the floor in front of journalists and saying: “Do you think this is an original?”

Last month, Indonesia’s speaker of parliament Setya Novanto, who has been embroiled in several corruption scandals, was also alleged to have owned a Richard Millle watch that would have cost more than Bt4 million.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was seen wearing a Bt17-million Richard Mille RM 52-014 timepiece during his wedding ceremony in 2015. The watch was worth about four times his annual income. Peskov insisted that the watch was merely a present from his wife.

Julia Mullock, ex-wife of Yi Gu, the last prince of the Korean Empire, passed away aged 94 late last month in a nursing home in Hawaii.

The Ukrainian American was called Julia Lee in Korea after marrying Yi Gu in 1958 in New York where the two met while working at the firm of architect I. M. Pei.

Yi Gu was the only child of Yi Eun (1897-1970), crown prince and seventh son of King Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. King Gojong proclaimed the Korean Empire in 1897.

“Julia Lee died of old age on Nov. 26 at the Hale Nani Rehab & Nursing Center in Hawaii,” Lee Nam-joo, a former music professor and distant nephew of Yi, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

“She wanted to be buried in Korea, but I heard that she was cremated, and her adopted daughter scattered her ashes in the Pacific Ocean.”

The couple came to Korea in 1963 and began living in Nakseonjae at the palace Changdeokgung. They separated in 1974 and divorced in 1982 under pressure from the Yi clan council because she had failed to produce an heir.

Yi then moved to Japan, while Julia Lee ran a fashion boutique in Korea until she settled in Hawaii in 1995.

When Yi Gu died in 2005, the clan council did not invite Julia Lee to his funeral despite her wishes to see him a final time.

NEW YORK – The former personal secretary of former first lady Imelda Marcos has began serving a two- to six-year prison term for stealing art works worth tens of millions of dollars and then lying about them in her tax declarations.

Vilma Bautista, 79, surrendered in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday after she had lost her appeal of the guilty verdict in January 2014, according to a report by the New York Post.

She faced 25 years in jail but the judge reduced her sentence because of her advanced age.

Justice Renee White of the Manhattan court said evidence showed Bautista “stole property from the Philippine government and Imelda Marcos.”

Bautista’s lawyer had argued that she had permission to sell the works on behalf of Imelda but had not been able to turn over the proceeds. The stolen masterpieces were by Claude Monet, Sisley and others.

Bautista sold Monet’s 1899 “Water-Lily Pond” for $32 million to a London gallery in 2010. The gallery then sold the painting for US$43 million (S$58 million) to British billionaire Alan Howard.

Bautista reported an income of $5,000 in a year she received $28 million. She was ordered to pay US$3,557,620.00 in taxes.