Jitan Ram Manjhi Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jitan Ram Manjhi

• When Jitan Ram was about one and a half years old, his family had to escape from a massive flood that hit Gaya in 1946.

• In 1946, his family became the victim of a massive flood while they were residing in Mahakar village (Khijarsarai area) in Gaya. They escaped it by climbing a tree.  He lived in a 4 feet high hut as his parents were landless labourers.

• His community – Musahar is known for catching and eating rats. When he became the Chief Minister of Bihar, a British newspaper reported that Jitan Ram Manjhi grew up catching and eating rats.

• During village festivals, Jitan Ram’s father used to perform as a dancer wearing women’s clothes. He wanted to educate Jitan Ram and therefore asked his friend, who was a tutor to educate his son.

• As a child, Jitan Ram used to take his landlord’s buffaloes for grazing every morning and in return he was offered a daily meal. In the evenings, he used to take classes from his tutor. He was home-tutored till 7th standard and then moved to another village to continue his formal education in a school.

• He received a small stipend from the government school for belonging to the Musahar caste but was forced to give some of its portion to his school teacher. On refusing, he was given low grades but he continued his schooling.

• Jitan Ram experienced hatred because of his caste when he was 13 years old. His school teacher had asked him to deliver a food basket to his sister. When he delivered it and took off the cloth from the basket, the woman shouted at him to have touched her food calling him an untouchable.

• In college, he began to take tuition to support himself financially. Jatan Ram Manjhi faced caste discrimination in college as he was asked to sleep either in the sick room or share a room with drunks and drug addicts, unlike other students who were given a regular room in the dormitory.

• Jitan Ram worked as a clerk at the telephone exchange department of Gaya for 13 years. He left this job as soon as his brother became a policeman.
  

  Jitan Ram Manjhi during his younger days

• He served as minister in Bihar’s state governments several times, having served under the tenure of many Chief Ministers of Bihar like Chandrashekhar Singh, Bindeshwari Dubey, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Jagannath Mishra, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, and Nitish Kumar.

• His party Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) was founded simply as Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). The word ‘secular’ was added a month after its formation.

• In 2015, Jitan Ram Manjhi stated that the legal marriage age should be 25 years for both males and females. He believes in the Hindu mythology’s ‘Ashram system’ according to which marriage after 25 years avoids health and malnutrition issues.

• Jitan Ram Manjhi served as minister for SC & ST Welfare in the Nitish Kumar government in 2014.

• He is known for changing parties and has done it about 8 times until 2024.

• He contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election on the reserved seat for Schedule Caste. His rival was Kumar Sarvajeet, who contested on Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) ticket and was backed by the INDI Alliance.