Unasked questions

With the atrocities on the oppressed showing no signs of abating, the dalits are joining together to fight for their rights. MARI MARCEL THEKAEKARA highlights the injustices done to them.

EVEN a worm will turn. So, increasingly, dalit groups are converging to protest the atrocities perpetrated on them and to demand justice. At a meeting in Chennai, on April 17 and 18, dalits voiced their protests. Mr. V. R. Krishna Iyer, former judge, presided, Martin Macwan, founder of Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad, was the convener of the national event.

Dalits have been killed with impunity for centuries now. Earlier, they were not organised enough for that. Now, every politician remotely connected with the area where an atrocity occurs, will put in a mandatory appearance. What actually happens? How many get punished? Is the punishment commensurate with the torture, and inherent in the deed? Does anyone think of the horror of a family locked in their house, flames creeping in, burnt to death for no reason except that they were born into the wrong caste? Can you imagine the utter helplessness, the frustration of thousands of people who belong to families thus wronged.

In November last, The Hindu carried a story of forest department officials wreaking havoc, destroying the coffee and pepper plants of poor Kattunaicken tribals in the Chembakolly forest of the Gudalur Valley, Nilgiris District, Tamil Nadu. Till the time of writing, four months later, the adivasis have not received justice. No action has been taken.

For about 70 per cent of the people in our country, there is no justice, absolutely no hope or faith in the legal or police systems. If Rajan Pillai, one of the richest men in the country, could die a helpless victim of police atrocity, what hope is there for the poor dalit or adivasi? In Gujarat, upper caste men can walk into a dalit village to pick up and rape a new bride at will. No police station will bother to record cases or complaints. They regard it as their prerogative, their birthright. An entire village of dalits will tremble when the landlords walk through the village in case his wrath is aroused at some imagined insult. Bihar of course is worse.

Upper caste reservations :

For centuries, upper castes have held the monopoly of all decent jobs, yet they raise a hue and cry when reservations for dalits are proposed. The Supreme Court recently ruled that reservations for dalits and OBCs should not exceed 50 per cent in any field. Why does not the Supreme Court say that in the light of their judgment, the representation of forward castes should also not exceed 50 per cent?

The recent report of Human Rights Watch, Broken People by Smita Narula brought together a shocking compilation of facts and figures illustrating the atrocities perpetrated on dalits, backward classes and adivasis in the name of development.

Broken People achieved the purpose of rousing dalit groups to the extent that they called for the first ever national demonstration and rally in New Delhi to present their demands to the government. A signature campaign was launched to highlight the problem faced by them.

The campaign literature has juxtaposed the constitutional directives and the actual state of affairs for dalits, 50 years after these directives were first issued.

Under the heading "Dalit Right to Livelihood", the paper points out, that the Constitution directs that free and compulsory education must be provided for all children upto 14 years. It also directs that the nation prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination with regard to right to housing, public health, medical care, social security and social services, education and training.

In 1977-78, according to the Planning Commission 48.30 per cent of the total population and 56.30 per cent of the dalit population existed below the poverty line. By 1987-88, 29.90 per cent of the total population and a whopping 41.50 per cent of the dalit population still subsisted below the poverty line. The 1993-94 figures indicated that while 39.09 per cent of the total urban and 38.20 per cent of the total rural population still lived below the poverty line, the figures for dalits were 49.48 per cent for urban and 48.11 per cent for rural areas. An obvious indication that while there has been an overall decline in poverty for the general population in the preceding years, there has been an alarming increase with the new economic policy. Not surprisingly, dalits remain abysmally mired in poverty throughout these periods.

When it comes to literacy, only one third of the population of Scheduled Castes (SC) is literate while female literacy falls short by more than half of male SC literacy. The infant mortality figures are equally dismal. Taking a figure of 1000 births, 104.2 per cent is the dalit rural infant mortality rate as opposed to the general figure of 86.7 per cent and in urban areas it is 74.2 per cent for dalit babies as opposed to 50.5 per cent for the general population.

On the social and religious scene, untouchability is the norm in all but the biggest cities. A micro-level study conducted in Karnataka, revealed that 13 per cent of rural dalits cannot wear clothes or jewellery of their own choice. They could be beaten or even killed for not knowing their place in society, for becoming too big for their boots. Karnataka is mild compared to the feudal Bimaru states or even Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the South.

A similar study in Karnataka revealed that 70 per cent of dalits interviewed were denied entry into the village temple and another 70 per cent were denied participation in religious processions. Most of us would take this as a matter of course and shrug our shoulders. This after all is India. Yet untouchability has been declared illegal. We now have a Prevention of Atrocities Act which can throw an offender into jail and keep him there. Insulting, humiliating or practising untouchability against dalits or adivasis is considered an atrocity and is punishable by law. Yet few people know this and fewer still use the Act to defend the rights of victims of atrocities.

The Constitution declares that the State shall ensure that ownership and control of material resources are distributed and that no concentration of wealth and means of production takes place. That everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, to protection against unemployment. And that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude.

R. Balakrishna, Chairman SC\ST Commission, Tamil Nadu states that land owning patterns and being a high caste member are coterminus. There is also a link between being lower caste and landless.

The total extent of land declared surplus in the entire country till 1996 was 74.94 lakh acres. Of this 64.84 lakh acres have been acquired by the government, of which 10 lakhs is still in possession of ineligible owners.

The Dalit community has some pertinent questions to ask. Are there only 74.94 lakh acres of surplus land available in the country? Why has it taken 52 years for the government to take possession of a measly 64.84 lakh acres? What prevents the taking over of the remaining 10 lakh acres? Only 18.49 lakh dalits have benefited from land distribution till 1996. When will the remaining millions of landless dalit labourers get their promised land?

Dalits form the majority of the 40 million bonded labourers. There are gaping holes in the Bonded labour (abolition) Act. Landless labourers are forced every year to migrate in search of work in the lean season. They are vulnerable to exploitation and injustice. The old and weak are left alone at home to fend for themselves while the able bodied go in search of work. Women left behind are often subject to sexual molestation. Children, old people and women have to face illness, hardship and even death without support from their menfolk. Children of migrant labour are generally withdrawn from school. There are many accidental deaths because of dangerous work conditions. Women who work in migrant groups are often raped, sexually exploited and many fall into the clutches of touts and pimps and end up prostitutes with little scope for escape and an utterly bleak future.

Martin Macwan pointed out that in Padra, in Baroda district, dalit women worked four to five hours a day for Rs. 7.50 a month. Bonded labour flourishes. People pay 300 per cent interest for paltry loans they can never repay. The cycle of exploitation continues uninterrupted.

All over the country, scavenging, toilet cleaning and sweeping are posts reserved almost exclusively for dalits. Many safai kamdars receive Rs. 50 a month. Some women clean private latrines for as little as Rs. 5 per month per household. Can we really consider ourselves civilised when such a large percentage of our population suffers sub human conditions? We sing facile Kargil victory chants and celebrate the nuclear bomb. We have cyber cafes and the world's best computer

programmers. But our toilets are cesspools of filth and we complacently shrug this off. There are human beings born to clean our messes. We take pride in our feudal, oppressive society. We have entered the new millennium. Maybe it is time to ask some important questions. Otherwise history has a way of repeating itself.

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