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A Dalit temple's encounter with official India

Vidya Subrahmaniam

The NCSC was set up especially to deliver speedy justice to the Scheduled Castes, a body mandated by law to protect the constitutional rights guaranteed to Dalits. Yet its officers are not above displaying caste prejudices.

— Photo: S. Subramanium

The shrines constructed by forward caste villagers in Bibipur remain on public land. A temple built by Dalits nearby was pulled down.

THE NATIONAL Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) is a distressingly dull place. Nothing moves the personnel here — not persistent questions, not polite pleas, not anger. For Dalits stonewalled in the local thanas and district offices, the Commission is the last hope. For journalists pursuing Dalit victimisation stories, it is the final halt: In the files stacked high in the NCSC's Atrocities and Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) wing are to be found the answers to many of their questions. But before that there are yards of red tape to get past.

I arrive at the NCSC armed with the documents I have collected from Bibipur, a small village in Haryana's Karnal district where the Dalit struggle to build a temple to Sant Ravidas has come up against severe forward caste and official resistance. The temple has been razed ostensibly because it was sought to be built on village school land.

Dalits here have the usual complaints. Landless as they are, they must use forward caste owned fields as a sanitary facility, which act puts their women at considerable risk. Many of them do `begar' labour (a form of bonded labour), working the fields from sunrise to sunset for little more than subsistence level food. But the current battle has assumed larger dimensions. It is about Dalit `astitva,' their self-respect, their right to worship their own god. It is a fundamental question that they ask: "Yes, it is illegal to build on village school land. But why is our temple illegal but not the three Brahmin temples that stand on the same land?"

I have with me several petitions, many of them to the NCSC. I have also with me three FIRs filed by Bibipur's Dalits at the local Indri police station. There is a specific complaint, with names of accused attached, against forward caste refusal to admit Dalits into their temples. The complaint has no corresponding FIR. There is another complaint, also with names attached, against the desecration of the Ravidas idol. In the corresponding FIR, recorded in his hand by a police constable, the accused, all named in the original complaint, have mysteriously become "unknown persons." The second FIR is on a complaint from four Dalit women who were harassed in the fields: the women, who seek redress under The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, accuse their forward caste offenders of verbal abuse, threat not to use their fields, and intimidation by pulling the strings of their salwars. The third FIR is against a forward caste armed attack on the school building.

So, what is the status report on Bibipur? Did the Karnal administration act on the FIRs? What about the many complaints before the Commission? A senior NCSC officer suggests I use the Right to Information Act to get the answers. I do that only to be fobbed off. The junior RTI officer to whom my application goes has the Bibipur file, I can see it (Haryana/177/2006 - APCR) but all he will give me are some useless covering letters. In his expert hands, the enabling RTI Act becomes a disabling Act. Quoting chapter and verse from the Act, he insists that the documents, though with the Commission, are in the legal custody of the Karnal police and administration (section 6(3)); that they must take a "considered view" on whether or not to reveal a "matter under investigation"(section 8(1) (h)); that the information relates to a third party (section 11(1)); that I could threaten the safety of Bibipur's Dalits (section 8(1)(g)); finally that he is transferring my applications to Karnal (section 6(3)). I quote section 7(1) of the Act to plead that the matter concerns the "life and liberty" of Dalits whom I want to help not harm. But to little avail.

Many trips to the Commission and two exasperating hearings — where I duck volley after volley from the junior officer and his assistant — later, I get the first set of documents. And my worst fears are confirmed. The Karnal police and the district administration have dismissed all complaints from Bibipur's Dalits barring one. To sum up: There is no truth to the charge that Dalits are forbidden entry into the Brahmin temples. The FIR on the desecration of the Ravidas idol cannot be acted upon because the complaint is against "unknown persons." The FIR alleging harassment and social boycott of Dalit women by Brahmins has been squashed because the charges are false. Yes, 14 of the 25 named in the FIR on the mob attack on the school have been arrested. However, I learn from Bibipur that these were mock arrests.

The reports filed by the Karnal administration in response to queries from the NCSC stress a single point. That the Dalit temple was an encroachment on public land. Significantly, none of the reports even mentions the Brahmin temples on the same public land. The repeated refrain is that Dalits were seeking to usurp public land, which attempt was resisted by the rest of the village. That three Brahmin temples are at the core of the dispute is revealed only through the November 29, 2006, panchayat decision — allowing the Brahmin temples but disallowing the Dalit temple — appended to the reports.

The bias evident in the Karnal administration's actions should surprise nobody. Haryana — no matter which party is in government — is conditioned to treat injustice to Dalits as normal. What is a surprise is the state of the NCSC — set up especially to deliver speedy justice to the Scheduled Castes, a body mandated by law to protect the Constitutional rights and safeguards guaranteed to Dalits. The job calls for a certain vision — and empathy to the historically secluded. Yet there is nothing to distinguish the NCSC staff from their counterparts in other sarkari offices. The Commission's officers, even the best among them, reveal caste prejudices. Disparaging remarks come up casually: Brahmins can never oppress Dalits; Dalit sub-castes discriminate against one another; Dalits are not allowed into forward caste temples because they do not bathe. Further, why don't they fight for basic amenities instead of asking to enter temples; why is it necessary to enter temples and so forth.

There are enough laws in the statute books to address the problem of anti-Dalit prejudice. Under The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, "enforcing religious disabilities" on the Scheduled Castes, including preventing their entry into temples, is a punishable crime. Under the same Act, "enforcing social disabilities," including preventing Dalit access to a sanitary convenience, is a punishable crime. The SC/ST (POA) Act, 1989, broadens the definition of atrocity, and was envisaged as a bold step in Dalit emancipation.

But no law is self-executing, and no law can uplift a wronged community in the absence of a socially enlightened administrative mechanism. Consider the latest available statistics. In 2004, the rate of conviction of cases disposed of under the Indian Penal Code was 40 per cent. Under the Protection of Civil Right Act, 1955, it was 8.03 per cent and under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, it was 15.71 per cent.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken often enough on the need to make the official machinery responsive to underclass suffering. To quote: "In the recent past, we have witnessed disturbing incidents and reports of atrocities against SCs and STs ... There are also shocking reports at times of apathy and a lack of sensitivity in handling the aftermath of such incidents ... I believe that the time is ripe for a serious introspection and a comprehensive review of our existing approaches, existing strategies and existing measures ... " Will he begin with the NCSC?

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