The Hindu : Karnataka News : Untouchability exists in Kestur?

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Friday, Sep 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Untouchability exists in Kestur?

Muralidhara Khajane

Taluk officials say there is perfect harmony among the communities

Tea is served to us in plastic cups: Dalits
It is the same for all customers: official

MYSORE: Rachaiah (40) of Kestur village of Yelandur taluk of Chamarajanagar has to go to Kuntur, 3 km away, to get his hair cut, as barbers in the village refuse to give him a haircut.

At times, he goes to Yelandur, the taluk headquarters, for the purpose.

He has to reserve a day for this. Similar is the treatment meted out to him in village hotels. Whenever he visits the small hotel in his village, he is served tea in a plastic cup.

This is not confined to Rachaiah, a Dalit. Over 700 Dalit families and 50 Adi Jambava families are being treated in a similar fashion for the past many years.

Despite being aware of the plight of the community, elected representatives of Dalits in the village have not taken any action, as they do not want to antagonise those from the upper caste, according to a resident Kamaiah.

Dalits in the village have resigned to their fate and are not interested in speaking about it, as they fear that they would have to face the wrath of the upper caste and leaders of their own community. However, the taluk officials say that there is perfect harmony among the people of the various communities in the village.

According to sources, there are 700 Dalit, 50 Adi Jambava, 500 Uppar, 200 Lingayat, eight Kuruba, 30 Madivala, 30 Nayaka and three Savitha Samaja families in the village.

Despite the presence of Savitha Samaja (barber) families in the village, there is no salon in the village. They give haircut in crammed rooms of their houses.

Fear of boycott

They also visit houses of some leaders to give them haircut. If any Dalit visits their places, they say they cannot give him haircut in their houses, as they fear that they would be socially boycotted.

However, they do not have any objection in giving haircut to Dalits in Yelandur and Kuntur.

President, school development and monitoring committee, Siddappaji and member Nagaraju, who are Dalits, say that there is no salon in the village as barbers fear that they will be forced to give haircut to Dalits.

Frustration

Frustrated by this social inequality, a few Dalit youths have started to give themselves haircut on their own. However, those who cannot still pay a visit to Kuntur and Yelandur.

Of the 17 members in the Kestur Gram Panchayat, five are Dalits. Despite this, no Dalit leader has raised this issue in the panchayat meetings so far.

The Dalit community has had a legislator in B. Basavaiah and a gram panchayat vice-president in the past. According to Dalits, their leaders are not prepared to raise the issue purely for political reasons.

According to Kamaiah, this has been the plight of the villagers for the past several years, and no one wants to set things right and Dalits have resigned to their fate. Dalits say that the taluk authorities convened a meeting recently to address this issue and tried to sort things out. But nothing has changed.

The sources, however, said that the State intelligence wing has submitted a report to the Government in this connection.

Social Welfare Officer, Yelandur taluk, Balachandra, who reviewed the situation, told The Hindu that there was no hotel in the village as per the records of the gram panchayat.

Some people, who are running hotels from their homes, are serving tea in plastic cups to all customers.

There was no salon in the village and members of Savitha Samaja families have set up shop in Yelandur and Kuntur.

“However, officials of various departments who visited the village have issued a caution,” he said.

President, Babu Jagjeevan Ram Sangha, Arakalavadi Nagendra, said that though untouchability was being practised in the village, no body wanted to speak about it in public.

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