The Jewar caste certificate dispute has led a father and his four sons to begin an indefinite hunger strike in Kani Garhi village of Gautam Buddh Nagar, sitting beside five funeral pyres they prepared as a protest against the alleged rejection of their applications.
According to a report by Live Hindustan – NCR, the family says it has been seeking caste certificates for several years but has repeatedly failed to obtain them. The protestors have appealed to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for intervention and placed posters at the site criticising Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Medha Rupan.
The family is led by resident Sunder Singh, who says he belongs to the Agaria community and supports his household through wage labour. He told the publication that he needs caste certificates for himself and his four children, including for submission to their schools. The family claims that its applications were processed at the tehsil level before being sent to the district level, where they were rejected.
Singh said the district-level rejection was based on the stated position that members of the Agaria community do not reside in Gautam Buddh Nagar. He disputed that position, claiming that people from the community hold land leases in the village and that some are employed in government service. These claims have not been independently verified in the supplied report, and no response from the district administration is included.
The family began the hunger strike on October 2. Singh said officials assured them that the matter would be resolved by Thursday, but the protest was continuing when the report was published on October 8. He said he would remain on hunger strike with his children until the family received what it described as justice.
The protest site is located on an empty plot, where five pyre-like structures made from cow-dung cakes have reportedly been arranged. Each member of the family is sitting in front of one structure. Posters at the location accuse the district administration of authoritarian conduct and appeal to the chief minister for help. One of the messages reportedly asks that the family either be given justice or be allowed to burn themselves alive.
The incident highlights the immediate consequences that delays or disputes in caste-certificate processing can have for families seeking to establish eligibility for education and other official requirements. In this case, the family says the certificates are required by its children’s school, while the administrative disagreement centres on whether the community is recognised as residing in the district.
The reported next step is the assurance given by officials that the applications would be addressed by Thursday. The hunger strike was still under way at the time of publication, and the supplied report does not state whether the district administration had issued a written order or whether the certificates had subsequently been granted.
