Other States - Orissa
Ten dalit families face social ostracisation in Ganjam
Staff Reporter
The villages form part of Chief Minister's constituency
The victims say they are facing wrath of upper castes
The tussle started more than a year ago
BERHAMPUR: Ten dalit families of Thuruburei village of Shergarh block
in Ganjam district are alleged to be facing severe casteist social
ostracisation.
The irony is that this casteist social ostracisation continues in a
village which is part of the Hinjli Assembly constituency represented
by the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik.
Exploitive norms
The victims of social ostracisation say they are facing the wrath of
upper castes of the village as they are not ready to bow down to their
derogatory exploitive norms.
The Thuruburei village is inhabited by around 500 families. Out of
them 20 families are 'washermen' or 'Dhobi' by caste. Pradeep Sethi,
an aggrieved dalit of the village said the upper castes have targeted
10 'dhobi' families who refused to bow down to the diktat of upper
castes.
It is alleged that the upper castes have barred them from using the
village well, tubewell, grocery shop etc.
They are not being allowed to harvest the crop in their field.
Tussle
As per Mr. Sethi, the tussle between the dalits and upper castes of
the village had started more than a year ago.
The 'Dhobi' families had demanded hike in the yearly payment made by
the upper caste families.
Each upper caste family was paying Rs. 20 per year to the designated
washerman families to wash clothes throughout the year.
Ten 'Dhobi' families had demanded the allowance to be hiked to Rs. 50 per year.
The other 10 washermen families had preferred to continue with the old payment.
Pay revision
This had irked the upper castes who had decided to ostracise the 10
washermen families who wanted revision in the meagre payment.
Several dalits of the village were also fined by the upper castes when
they refused to wash clothes at extreme low price.
Tussle between them had aggravated when dalit families opposed
construction of an Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) centre on a patch
of land which they claimed to be a road as per the revenue records.
The dalits used to have a cow shed on the patch of land. On Thursday
the tussle took violent shape. One dalit, Bhimasena Sethi was
seriously injured.
He was admitted in the MKCG medical college hospital. Both warring
groups have filed cases against each other in the Hinjli police
station.
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