By Rajiv Shah
In a scathing reply to the Gujarat government-sponsored study, “Impact
of Caste Discrimination and Distinctions on Equal Opportunities: A Study of
Gujarat”, carried out in five of Gujarat’s villages to “prove” that there is no
wide-scale practice of untouchability in the state, a “resurvey” in the same
five villages has found it prevails in all its manifestations. Carried out by Navsarjan Trust, a state human
rights organization, the “resurvey” says that in every walk of life – whether it
is temple entry, social or cultural festivals, or access to basic necessities –
untouchability is widely prevalent, something the government-supported study
has sought to "undermine".
Interestingly, CEPT scholars preferred not to touch any of
the 1,600 villages which were surveyed by Navsarjan; instead, in consultation
with government officials, they just chose five villages. These were Khavda
village in Kutch district, Kherva village in Surendranagar district, Nana Nesda
village in Banaskantha district, Trasad village in Ahmedabad district, and
Menpura in Kheda district. The CEPT study sought to undermine untouchability,
saying caste discrimination as they found it prevailing in these villages was
more a “matter of perception”, and if Dalits do not mix up with members of
other communities during social functions, it was more a matter of choice.
Finding the argument atrocious, Navsarjan decided to send
its team to each of the five villages, whose results have now been compiled in
a fresh report. The “resurvey” report shows that in each of these villages, while
Rohits, a Dalit sub-caste, alone are made to lift and dispose of when a cow or a
buffalo dies, another sub-caste, Valimikis, are made to “remove” rest of the
dead animals, including dogs and cats. A village-wise resurvey reveals there
were variations, but untouchability prevailed in one form or the other in each of
them, and the CEPT conclusions were biased.
In Nava Nesda, the
Dalits are asked to sit as a separate group in village panchayat meetings and are served
tea in a separate cup; Dalits are not allowed to enter the biggest temple of
the village, Dudheshwar Mahadev; untouchability is practiced in several of the
village shops, where if a Dalit touches some goods by mistake, the “touched”
item is “purified” by sprinkling water; hair cutting saloons and a beauty
parlour do not provide any service to Dalits; the local dairy does not provide
milk to the Dalits; and there is discrimination against Valmikis in providing
water in the village panchayat.
In Khavda, during social functions, the Dalits are made to
sit separately for meal; in the village’s Swaminarayan Nagar, Dalits are not
offered house on rent; the Dalits here too are not allowed to enter into any of
the temples; and during such festivals like Navratri, Dalit youth are not
allowed to play Garba with non-Dalits; they can at best see Garba being played,
sitting in a distance. In Menpura, which
was declared by the Gujarat government as “Gokul gam” because of its excellent
record in developmental activities, the Dalits are not allowed to fetch water
from the common village well; they are not allowed to enter into the main Ramji
temple; they must sit separately and see
Garba during Navratri, but not participate; during marriages the Dalits are not
allowed to take out the ceremonial procession through the village streets; and the
Dalit children in the primary school are not allowed to sit in the front rows,
nor are they allowed to take part in cultural festivals.
In Trasad, a village not very away from Ahmedabad, the
Dalits told the Navsarjan team that they were not aware of any CEPT scholars
having visited their village to carry out a survey. The Navsarjan team was told
that in 2009, the Dalits lodged a police complaint under the atrocities Act
against the upper castes, who discriminated against them in the sitting arrangement
during the Yagna ceremony in the Shiv temple. Despite the complaint, even
today, things have not changed. Other forms of discrimination include provision
of a separate cremation for the Dalits and not allowing participation in Garba
during Navratri. In the fifth village,
Kherva, again, a similar type of discrimination was noticed.
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