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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Fear keeps young dalit women away from Haryana village -Kim Arora

Fear keeps young dalit women away from Haryana village -Kim Arora

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published Published on Apr 17, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 17, 2013
-The Times of India


PABNAWA (HARYANA): It has been over 48 hours since the attack took place. But fear still stalks the dalits of Pabnawa village in Haryana's Kaithal district. The young women from the community have been moved out en masse by their families fearing sexual assault by upper-caste goons. Some were picked up by relatives from nearby villages after desperate SOS calls; others were escorted to safety by their husbands and fathers. A handful of very old women are the only ones who have stayed back. A team from the National Commission for Schedule Caste (NCSC), including chairperson PL Punia, visited the village on Tuesday. But dalits in the area still complain of verbal threats and abuses. And they say, they still don't know if and when their wives and daughters can come back.

Pabnawa is still coming to terms with its first-ever inter-caste marriage that took place in the village on April 10 and sparked off the caste-based violence. On Saturday, upper caste mobs from the Rod community struck the dalit settlement in the village. Meena, the 20-year-old girl, belonged to the Rod community while Surya, the groom was a 22-year-old Dalit. Most villagers say that had it been the other way round, nothing would have happened. One dalit youth from the village said that it is only the "Bodla" community among the Rods that they are under threat from. Husan Singh, the sarpanch of the village, also a Rod, belongs to the "Tamak" community.

After interacting with the families, Punia asked the local administration to probe the circumstances in which one Sultan Singh, who was detained for threatening the groom's family, was let off by the police. Dalits allege the upper caste community had pressured the cops to release him from custody, following which the attack occurred on Saturday night.

The girl's father, Firti Ram, says he doesn't know those who attacked the dalits. Her wedding was to take place in six months' time, he says. 50 grams of gold was kept in the house for her wedding. She fled with it and landed in a Chandigarh court to sign on the dotted line. They have not established contact with her yet. "We don't give mobile phones to our girls in this village," says Firti Ram, who has three daughters.

Though distancing himself from the violence, Firti Ram opens up when it comes to constitutional rights and marriage law. "The law is such. These children can go ahead and get married without their parents consent. What kind of a law is this? This is no marriage!" says a distressed Firti Ram. While he remains with his house with the family, the groom's parents have left the village.

A cursory look at Pabnawa's Harijan colony can be an eerie experience. Many doors are latched or locked. Others are torn off their hinges. The furniture inside is upturned, motorbikes toppled over, televisions clubbed to bits of glass, refrigerators empty and broken. Policemen in khaki dominate the landscape alertly standing at crossings, stationed inside patrol vehicles or lounging about on charpoys. Everyone from the dalit community has gathered at the village square, or chaupal, where a BSP politician came calling.

Now and then, someone gets up to address the gathering. "We must act with patience and not take a wrong step in a hurry," says a dalit. "The marriage is wrong, yes. Both sides have opposed it. But there will be no compromise in bringing the attackers to book," says another person of the same community.

Most people spoken to attested that relations between the two castes had been friendly and cooperative so far. But it takes little to see how strictly caste lines are adhered to. The Rods, who traditionally belong to the upper caste but were categorized as a special OBC group recently by the Haryana government, live in clusters separate from the dalit basti. The employers are Rods, who own land and houses where the dalits are daily wage seekers.

Dalits admit they expected the violence. "Ghatna to hovegi" (Something will happen) went the murmurs around Pabnawa, after their efforts to separate the couple failed. The tension and build-up erupted finally on the day of Ambedkar's 122ndbirth anniversary last weekend.

Going by their testimonies, the environment is still far from safe for the dalit men. "I was walking back from the bus stop outside the village yesterday. I saw a few men from the Rod community who shouted abuses at me and gestured at me threateningly," says Balwant Singh, who escorted his wife, mother and three children to another village for safety.

The dalit men here say they are in constant touch with their female relatives. "They ask us how things are. They are still afraid to come back," says Shailender Kumar. Currently more than 100 cops are posted in the area; only 12 are women police officers. "Ladies ki toh baat nahin hai na. Maamla toh jaati ka hai ji (It's not a matter of women. It's a caste issue)," says the DSP posted here. The statement explains more than it intends to.

(With inputs from Deepender Deswal)


The Times of India, 17 April, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Fear-keeps-young-dalit-women-away-from-Haryana-village/articleshow/19588737.cms


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