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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | An unwritten social boycott scripting the fate of many -Niha Masih

An unwritten social boycott scripting the fate of many -Niha Masih

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published Published on Apr 13, 2018   modified Modified on Apr 13, 2018
-Hindustan Times

Many face backlash and are boycotted from their communities for marrying outside their caste. With the social boycott bill, that came into effect last July, there is hope for the victims.

Pune:
On a cloudy Thursday morning in January, 1990, in Pune’s Cantt area, Umesh and Manju walked out of their homes separately — anxious and excited. After a month of waiting, the court had given them a date for their wedding. Umesh, in his driver’s uniform, and Manju, in a Punjabi salwar kameez, got married in the presence of friends.

For 20 days, their families knew nothing. Then the two left their homes to live together. Umesh was 25, Manju 19.

They had to be discreet because Umesh had broken an unspoken but widely acknowledged rule — that marriages must only happen within the community. Umesh is from the Telugu Mudelwar Parit community, who have traditionally worked as dhobis. Manju came from a Buddhist family.

“We had foreseen disapproval from my parents but I knew eventually they would come around,” says Umesh Rudrap, now 53. A year after their wedding, on the birth of their son, his father forgave him. What Umesh hadn’t foreseen was the backlash from his community — which would impact not just their lives but that of their extended family and children in the years to come.

The community elects panchayat bodies whose main functions are to promote community development, but they end up holding sway over social relations as well.They invoked an unspoken social boycott of the couple, denying them participation in any aspect of community life.

Manju says, “We would never get invited for weddings (except very close relatives), or funerals or any programmes organised for the children. At my brother-in-law’s engagement, I sat with the ladies for a ceremony but someone else was asked to do the ritual instead of me. I had to keep quiet as it was our own family function.”

Twenty-eight years of social isolation and obloquy can take a toll. “I am tired now. Tired of trying to make people understand and tired of feeling helpless. The world is progressing but the community is only regressing,” says Umesh.

A progressive legislation is now providing help to people such as Umesh. The state legislature passed the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, in April 2016. It came into effect in July last year after Presidential approval, making Maharashtra the only state to have such a law.

While the Scheduled Caste and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is meant to addresses caste violence and atrocities, intra-caste issues have had no legal avenue. There is no official count of caste panchayats, but civil society organisations working on the issue say they run into thousands and affect lakhs of people across the state.

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Hindustan Times, 9 April, 2018, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/an-unwritten-social-boycott-scripting-the-fate-of-many/story-woI8BFD6flKzQCbeIx2yIP.html


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