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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Caste walls at crematoriums broken down -Rakhee Roy Talukdar

Caste walls at crematoriums broken down -Rakhee Roy Talukdar

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published Published on Sep 24, 2014   modified Modified on Sep 24, 2014
-The Telegraph

Jaipur: Death owes this to the living. In this desert state, it is once more the great leveller.

It needed a prod from a blindfolded lady with scales, but social workers say it's a big step forward towards ending years of caste-based discrimination that did not even spare the dead.

Maybe, not much longer.

Here's the story. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has "removed" signposts and covered boards at crematoriums that marked out places for different communities to light pyres, taking for the first time swift action to stamp out inequality even in death.

The move followed an order from Rajasthan High Court. But the man behind the judgment says the last rites haven't yet been conducted on such blatant discrimination.

"Not all boards or signs of discrimination at cremation grounds have been removed," says Jaipur-based advocate Ramchandra Machwal. "I am planning to file a petition regarding this."

Machwal had moved the court last year, urging it to ensure that some sections don't have to take their dead to a different place for cremation than what are maintained by the corporation.

The lawyer, who belongs to the Rana community, traditionally drumbeaters and considered low on the social hierarchy, had been stung by the discrimination when he had gone to a crematorium for the funeral rites of a fellow Rana. An argument had ensued with members of another community - higher on the social ladder - who claimed the place belonged to them. The altercation soon turned into a scuffle. Machwal says they had to perform the last rites on another pyre.

The 36-year-old later surveyed cremation grounds in the Rajasthan capital and found the bigger ones - Adarsh Nagar, Chandpole, Mansarovar, Brahmpuri and Ghat Gate - had been divided among different castes. Those who didn't belong to any of these categories had to take their dead to other crematoriums.

He also found out that different caste groups had built platforms to light pyres and installed fixed signboards declaring that the last rites of only their caste members could be performed at these spots.

Machwal decided to do something about the injustice and the blatant violation of Article 14, which guarantees the right to equality, and Article 17 that abolishes untouchability. The PIL in the high court followed.

Earlier this month, on September 8, the division bench of Chief Justice Sunil Ambwani and Justice V.S. Siradhana directed the civic body to end the practice of caste-based discrimination at cremation grounds within seven days.

"We have removed the boards at most of the crematoriums registered with us," JMC commissioner Ramcharan Sharma told The Telegraph. "But if some remain, please let us know, we will do the needful."

A visit to some crematoriums revealed that at places the signboards had been removed while some had been covered with cloth. But at places where the engraving is on stones or platforms had been set up, nothing had been done.

Social workers, however, said the quick compliance with the court order was a step forward for Rajasthan, a state still steeped in caste prejudices and where elections are still fought along caste lines and Dalits are routinely abused.

The forms of abuse include segregation of schoolchildren, ban on riding horses during weddings and inequality in access to water and other common resources like pastures and wastelands.

Still, social activists say, a step has been taken. So what it began with the dead?


The Telegraph, 23 September, 2014, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140924/jsp/nation/story_18866995.jsp#.VCKQGMlwxng


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