Skip to main content

Symbolic rite in memory of Hathras gangrape victim performed by women in 1,000 villages

By A Representative 
About 30,000 people participated in over 1,000 villages of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka in the Prerna Sabha (sacred get together), organised on October 14, to give respects to the Hathras teenage girl, who was gangraped on September 14. The died a fortnight later in a Delhi hospital. 
The programme, which marked the day on which top Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar embraced Buddhism, October 14, 1956, was held a symbolic protest against the refusal of the authorities to allow the girl’s family members a respectable funeral. As she was cremated past midnight without even permitting her mother to apply “haldi-tilak” (turmeric mark) to her body, a religious rite, Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan announced the programme of “haldi-tilak” ceremony on October 10.
In an email alert to Counterview, Macwan said, on October 14, when the ceremony was held in 1,000-odd villages, “women participated in a greater number, and so did the children.” Stating that “personally, it was very inspiring”, Macwan declared, in another programme, the haldi (turmeric) collected from all these villages will now be handed over to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to be immersed in Ganga, since the state did not respect religious/cultural rites of the Dalit victim.
Macwan announced, haldi collected from all the villages will be handed over to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to be immersed in Ganga
Founder of the Gujarat Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust, Macwan said, “Our own expenditure for the poster-banner, especially designed for the occasion, was maximum Rs 62 per village and nil in other villages, as many people painted it on the wall. The programme was important for us all personally as well as collectively, as we see how this was able to connect to many faces who have never been seen in public programmes.”
He added, “We were able to reach the last person, and it was the symbol of haldi, a language of the common people, that made it possible. While applying haldi some women broke down because bringing haldi from home and applying it to the face of the girl, the victim of sexual abuse, even though representational, brings out ones own personal memories. The programme continued in many villages till last night.”

Comments

Unknown said…
Thanks for the story. This whole event and it’s aftermath have been sickening.
October 16, 2020
Post a Comment

TRENDING

Kutch water crisis deepens: Bhuj lost 54 of its 82 lakes; pastoralists migrate first time since 2018

By Rajiv Shah   A comprehensive new report by Homes In The City (HIC), a Bhuj-based civil society programme, has revealed that despite late monsoon rains easing Kutch's immediate drought conditions, the region faces a deepening water security crisis — with Bhuj having lost more than half of its historic lakes and pastoral communities forced to migrate for the first time since 2018.
Post a Comment
»

From a cowshed to a home: How Mangaltai's Palawi gives HIV-positive children a second life

By Dr A.V. Yadappanavar *  In a small village called Takli, not far from the temple town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, there is a home where children who were once abandoned because of their HIV status now find food, medicine, education, and something even rarer — love without fear. The home is called Palawi, and it was founded in 2001 by Mangal Shah, affectionately known as Mangaltai, a social worker who could not look away from children rejected by their own families.
Post a Comment
»

Tribal rights under siege: Roundtable Seeks strong legal defence of land, jobs and PESA

By A Representative  Tribal rights activists, legal experts, tribal leaders, former officials and civil society representatives from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have called  for urgent action on tribal land rights, employment and PESA safeguards. They were participating in  roundtable on Constitutional Safeguards for Scheduled Tribes in the Telugu States at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad. Former Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao chaired the deliberations.
Post a Comment
»