Forty Dalit families in Kantio Kateni village of Odisha’s Dhenkanal district have been subjected to social boycott for the past two weeks after a 15- year-old girl from the community plucked flowers from the backyard of an upper caste family two months ago.
The village, which has nearly 800 families, has 40 families from the Scheduled Caste Naik community.
The girl’s father Niranjan Naik said, “We had immediately apologised so that the matter could be resolved, but following the incidents, several meetings were called and they decided to boycott us. Nobody is allowed to talk to us; we are not allowed to participate in any social event of the village.”
The local PDS dealer and store owner have refused to sell to these families, forcing them to but essentials. Villagers have even stopped talking to them. The people are deprived of sharecropping to make sure that they do not get ample work in the village and thus have to go to other villages to find work. The families have been ‘’warned’’ against taking procession for weddings or funerals.
Sarpanch Pranabandhu Das said, “It is an inter-community matter and will get resolved eventually”. He also says that the majority community was only asked to not talk to the dalits and the rest charges put by the minority class are baseless and untrue.
Even after two peace meetings the matter is not resolved. The police are also waiting
For another round of talks. Anand Kumar Dungdung, inspector incharge, Tumusinga police station, said: “We have tried to sort it out. They wanted to reach a compromise and not drag the matter further, which is why we did not file an FIR. We have called for another meeting with the leaders from both communities. If they do not resolve the matter we will go ahead and file an FIR.”
This news is not shocking for many even when it comes after a week of India’s 74th Independence Day celebrations. Caste continues to dominate politics in the country, even after political parties have been singing for the upliftment of scheduled caste and scheduled tribes for decades now.
As people of these forty villages filed a police complaint under the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities act) altercations have come to a minor brawl. For a couple of days, as per the committee’s decision, the majority community had stopped talking to the members of the Dalit community. The situation is now returning to normal.”
We may not see it around us but the caste system still exists and continues to hamper the country’s growth.
