Urban rules of untouchability
03 November 2010 10:28
There is a polite silence around exclusion based on caste that happens in
the cities. We trace the unstated rules through which it operates
By nisary mahesh and Asha menon
This is an exercise in mapping silence. In the cities, there is an unstated
code that keeps some people apart. It is not polite to voice it, because the
urbane believe themselves to be liberal and free of traditional biases.
However, untouchability — any form of exclusion based on caste — is
prevalent in the cities. We trace the rules through which it operates by
talking to people who are at the receiving end — the 'untouchables' of urban
India.
*Rule 1*
*A good place to start is the capital city. Here, your house broker will
mysteriously become too busy for you if you are a Dalit.*
When Anoop Kumar was in his late twenties, he went house hunting with this
friend. "We went to Gautam Nagar through a broker. The assistant of the
broker showed me the place and we liked it. When we began negotiating for
the rent, the broker asked us our caste. I said I am a Dalit and immediately
there was a change of tone. The broker said that he needs to reconsider it,
that he will need to talk to the landlord, that they nearly fixed another
tenant. Later we found that it was the broker's younger brother's flat. We
fought with him over it, but we still did not get the house."
*Rule 2*
*While looking for a house, be prepared for questions on your caste.
* Anila Jagdish and her two friends were looking for a house in the heart of
Kochi, Kaloor. There were the usual questions posed to single women and
then, came the direct question: "What is your caste?". "I did think it was
odd, but we had to name our castes like the whole thing was not awkward or
nothing out of the ordinary." Anoop has been living in Delhi for the past
ten years and he now notices subtler ways in which landlords probe to find
out his caste. "They ask me my full name, assess my ability to speak English
and then the most familiar question would be about my eating habits —
vegeterian or non-vegetarian." Geeta Menon, of Bengaluru based Stree Jagruti
Samiti which works with unorganised workers, says, "Many non-Brahmin people
have spoken to us about difficulty in getting a house on revealing their
caste."
*Rule 3*
*Neighbourhoods can be very choosy.
* In Kochi, land-holdings of Scheduled Castes are bought by real estate
companies. In these neighbourhoods, anyone who refuses to part with their
small land-holding are not welcome to stay as a 'sore sight'. Balan, who
belongs to the Pulaya community, was asked to vacate his plot by a real
estate tycoon who had purchased the surrounding plots for a mega project.
Balan refused and today, he is being harassed for that. "The drainage water
from the project is being pumped to my plot," he says. There is a legal
dispute, but Balan has little hope. "They can easily with their money
power."
*Rule 4*
*Common pathways are not open to all.
* Several instances have been pointed out in Kochi where Scheduled Caste
people are forbidden from sharing pathways with upper castes. Umesan, a
member of Vela community residing in Ernakulam says how his family was
denied the use of a pathway through an upper-caste person's plot. "I had
acquired rights for use of the pathway, since my plot has no access to the
main road. But recently a person from an upper caste purchased the plot
through which the pathway runs and he blocked the way." The matter was taken
to court with the help of Dalit Service Society and the court ruled in
Umesan's favour.
*Rule 5*
*It is best not to assert your Dalit identity.
* Anoop is a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, an institute generally
known for its liberal politics. He joined the college for post graduate
studies in International Politics. During a session on reservation policy in
India, majority of the upper caste students said it was wrong. "Angry at
their stance, I stood up and shared my experience of being Dalit."
Shockingly, Anoop was punished for it. "The next two years, none of the
upper caste students spoke to me. If you speak about caste, you are
immediately seen as a cadre of Mayawati's party. It leads to hatred." In
Kochi, Girija talks about the threats she received and the harassment she
had to face from teachers at her law college for organising Dalit students
to avail government grants. "I was quite good at studies, but they
manipulated the internal assessment to punish me. I had to seek the help of
Dalit Federations for justice."
*Rule 6*
*There are separate benches for different castes, even in reputed
educational institutes.
* On November 5, Bandi Anusha (student of a prestigous college in Hyderabad)
grew tired of being kept apart. Says her father. "She was made to sit alone
at the front bench after her friends came to know of her Scheduled Caste
status," he says. Anusha decided to put an end to it and she was convinced
that the only way out of this was to kill herself. Allegedly, she announced
her intention to her classmates and nobody stopped her. She stepped out and
messaged her father "bye dad im gng to die."
*Rule 7*
*City planning officials will have no qualms about exploiting the caste
divide in slums, often to the detriment of backward castes.
* In Chennai's Nochikuppam, Perumal's was one of the many families that
sought relief after tsunami. But he, like the other Dalits in the fishing
hamlet, realised that they would not be given a house by the sea (within
city limits) since they were classified as "NF" (non-fishing) in government
records. Dalits like many other backward communities in the hamlet were
employed in activities that surround fishing — like cleaning the boats,
selling fish, mending nets etc. They infact formed a majority in the hamlet.
"To reduce the cost incurred to the government, the officials said that we
would get it in the outskirts," says Perumal. "And they told the ooru
(hamlet) leaders to campaign for that and not bother about us." The leaders
were easily convinced, since they themselves were vulnerable to eviction
from the city if they did not cooperate with the babudom.
*Rule 8*
*You may not be good enough to sit next to foreign clients or for a flight
ticket.
* Rajen Dev came to Hyderabad to work for a prestigious IT firm. Over the
years, he has noticed that he is not being treated on par with his peers.
Sometimes it is the smaller things. "It is difficult for me to my flight
expenses cleared. I will need to follow the official procedure, while my
upper-caste colleagues get it cleared informally." Then, there is the client
visit during which Rajen is not encouraged to mingle with them. "They invite
me but never seat me next to them. It could be for want of command over
English language." But Rajen fears there are larger implications. "I've been
denied a promotion for the past four years though I've been the best
performer. I sat with my seniors to discuss a development plan if the
problem was with my work. But no one seemed interested."
That an urban corporate would be discriminatory based on caste should not
come as a surprise. In 2007, S Madheswaran and Paul Attewell had written in
Caste Discrimination in the Indian Urban Labour Market (for Economic and
Political Weekly), based on evidence gathered from National Sample Survey,
that "Discrimination (against SC/ST employees) seems to be much more
resilient in the private than in the public sector…"
*Rule 9*
*The definition of 'merit' at work will not be inclusive.
* "Merit in private sector is often defined in terms of what a person scores
in an English-based, written exam," says Venkat of Madras Institute of
Development Studies. Break it down and the skills required – proficiency in
English – are not often accessible to backward castes. In 2007, when
Surinder S Jodhka and Katherine Newman wrote a paper based on interviews
with 25 human resource managers in large firms in New Delhi and National
Capital region, they found that the cultural capital expected from employees
– like "worldly, sophisticated and well educated" – is not accessible to
members of SCs. Mr.R Prakash, Director, Institute for Dalit Development and
Studies, Kerala is also the Superintendent in the Department of Industries.
"There have been many instances in offices where people refuse to address
Dalits with respectable terms like 'sir'," he says. "Even the office boys
refer to Scheduled Caste officers as 'special quota', which means he has not
come to the position due to his merit.
*Rule 10*
*You can be under tremendous pressure to perform, to prove yourself worthy
of the 'benefits' given by the government.
* When Amaravathi, a national- level Dalit woman boxer from Hyderabad,
consumed poison, her family members blamed her coach. "She used to tell us
that her coach would frequently scold her to achieve results or leave the
sports hostel (of Andhra Pradesh) since she was enjoying free amenities
there (referring to the facilities given to SC/St students)," they said.
*Rule 11*
*Domestic help cannot use the same toilets or same water filters.
* "In some households, localities in Bengaluru, the women who clean the
house and the toilets are not allowed to use the toilets not drink water
from the filters," says Geeta.
*Rule 12*
*Even the Gods will discriminate
* "Neither churches nor the temples have not taken any steps to include the
Scheduled Castes in their leaderships," points out Mr. P K Santhoshkumar,
Secretary, Dalit Service Society, Kochi. 'The Kerala Temples Devaswom Bill'
was passed in 2008, to include the Dalits in devaswoms. "But not one has
been included even as committee members nor have they come forward, since
they are not confident how they will be accepted in the 'Nair' dominated
temple devaswoms."
*Rule 13*
*Pooja rooms are a no-enter zone for domestic help.
* In a posh locality in Chennai, a senior lawyer Veena was chided by her
neighbour. Reason? For letting her domestic help clean her pooja utensils.
"I calmly told her to wash them herself, if she has a problem with my
domestic help washing them," says Veena. The neighbour has not spoken to her
since then. It is common even in Bengaluru, says Geeta. "They are not
allowed into the pooja rooms or touch some vessels. Even after they wash the
clothes and vessels, water is sprinkled on the same." On a lighter note, she
adds, "Ironically, how pure is the corporation water that is sprinkled?"
*Rule 15*
*We are all friends till dinnertime.
* Whenever lawyer Priyanka goes to her friend and Delhi-based senior
journalist Maya Fernandes' house, she does not stay for dinner. Says Maya,
"Priyanka is a Brahmin and she is not comfortable with having food in my
house because I cook nonvegetarian food. She usually calls up and asks me to
finish my dinner and wait up for her or leaves just before dinner. One day,
when she did come early and had to wait for someone else at my house, she
bought a packet of chips." It has definitely affected their relationship and
Maya is not sure, if she can ever be a good friend to Priyanka.
*Rule 16*
*Humour is often used to sugar-coat offensive statements and behaviour.
* In a Kochi-based editing firm, Anila has to suffer another colleague's
playful attempts at dividing the staff into different caste groups. "She
counts the Nairs in the room by asking them to raise their hands. Then, she
pitches Nairs against non-Nairs in debates. It is all done as a joke, so how
do we argue? Most people join in so that they don't appear touchy or
oversensitive." One day, this colleague proudly announced in the office that
the Brahmin receptionist liked her the moment he saw her because of her fair
skin. Abraham Ninan remembers an incident that happened in one of the
leading IT firms in Chennai. He was there to take classes in effective
communication and on day one he could spot the class clown. "The minute I
asked him any question, the whole class would start giggling. I realised
that he spoke in halting English. According to them, he clearly did not
belong." He lacked in cultural capital.
--
B.Karthik Navayan, Advocate
H.No. 21-7-761,
Opp.High Court Post Office,
Gansi Bazar, Hyderabad,
PIN-500002, AP.
Cell:09346677007,
email:navayan@gmail.com <email%3Anavayan@gmail.com>
http://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/
http://www.petitiononline.com/93466770/petition.html
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile.aspx?uid=10379805095932756525
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