Shiv Kumar, a strapping 17-year-old with a budding moustache, won his first 1600-metre race in July 2016 running barefeet. His family could not afford to buy him running shoes.
The race is a monthly event in Shiv’s village. Since his first victory, Shiv has won every race despite never once getting to use proper footwear.
This triumph against adversity has not been a cause for celebration so much as abuse. Shiv’s success challenges the carefully regulated social hierarchy of Mirchpur, his native village, in Haryana’s Hisar district. Shiv is a Dalit from the scavenger Valmiki community.
Mirchpur is infamous in the recent history of caste oppression. On an overcast day in April 2010, following a dispute between Jat men and a Dalit man over a barking dog, a mob of Jats set ablaze 18 Dalit homes. In the inferno, a 70-year-old man named Tarachand and his handicapped teenage daughter, Suman, were burned to death.
