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| Dalit women explaining their woes of discrimination at Deveerahalli village on Thursday |
Over 300 Dalit families of Deveerahalli Village, of
Kudimenahalli Panchayat, in Krishnagiri district allege that they are
being denied work by intermediate castes of the village and of six other
nearby villages. The reason behind this, they say, is that a Dalit
youth in their area had fallen in love with a girl of an intermediate
caste from Sathinayakkanpatti under Damodarahalli Panchayat.
The
girl is back with her parents after the youth’s parents wanted her to
go back, as they feared the type of mob fury which was unleashed on
three colonies in nearby Dharmapuri district, over a similar issue in
November last year. But, the boycott of the Dalits of the Krishnagiri
village continues though the affair had come to light in December and
the girl had gone back to her home.
Intermediate
castes have banned Dalits from working on their agriculture fields,
brick kilns and other income-earning activities since then. The decision
to bar them from
such forms of employment was allegedly taken by a
‘khap panchayat’ — a council of older persons who issue decrees to their
community members on matters such as marriage — consisting of the
leaders of seven villages, in and around Sathinayakkanpatti and
Deevarahalli, on December 24 last year, alleged A. Manikandan, district
convener of Naam Tamizhar Katchi.
Many Dalits, who
have also taken up the lands of intermediate caste on lease, for
cultivation of crops, lost lakhs of rupees due to the economic boycott.
They were not allowed to step into the farm lands. M. Kumar (37), who is
District president of HIV Positive Network, said, “After the incident
in December, the neighbouring landowner refused to give water for
irrigating my ragi crop, cultivated on half an acre. I was forced to buy
water from another village and bring it by tractors to save my crop’’.
S. Salamma (45) of Deveerapalli village says she has two young sons to
take care of. As her husband, a daily wage earner, has been rendered
jobless because of the boycott, the family is totally dependent on the
earnings from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (MGNREGS) works and the free rice distributed through the public
distribution system.
M. Chitra (30), mother of two
male children, said, “There is no discrimination at the MGNREGS
worksite, but the intermediate castes stopped speaking to us after the
order of the khap panchayat”.
The decision taken at
the khap panchayat allegedly ordered that Dalits should not be employed
under the MGNREGS also. But, it was rejected by the village panchayat
president K. Murugesan. Himself a member of an intermediate caste, he
told the village leaders that he could not indulge in discrimination as
the head of a local body. The parents of the youth and the girl could
not be contacted for their comments.
X. Irudayaraj,
District Secretary, Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, and G.
Sekar, District Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), added the
police and revenue authorities should take action against those
indulging in the boycott of Dalits, which denied them livelihood.
Stating
that his inquiry found a boycott of the Dalits, Deputy Superintendent
of Police, Bargur, G. Gajendran said, on Saturday, that he would conduct
a meeting between the Dalits and caste-Hindus. As for the love affair,
Mr. Gajendran said that even before a formal complaint was lodged by the
girl’s family, a police team visited the village and took all possible
measures to prevent any untoward incident, and the girl returned to her
parents.
source: thehindu
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