Two arrested for gang-rape of 18-year-old Dalit girl in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur
The BJD team submitted a memorandum to the Jagatsinghpur SP demanding strict action against the accused. JAGATSINGHPUR/KENDRAPARA: An 18-year-old dalit girl out to celebrate the birthday of her uncle’s daughter was reportedly gang-raped by two miscreants at Chandgarh Majurai village within Jagatsinghpur police limits on Monday evening. Police have arrested the accused Pritiranjan Behera (23) and Kartik Majhi (22), both of nearby Palasa village. Sources said the incident took place when the survivor had gone to her uncle’s place, around 50 feet from her house, to assist with the preparations for his daughter’s birthday party. She was helping in preparing food in the kitchen when she was approached by a 13-year-old girl. The minor reportedly asked her to accompany her to call another friend for the cake-cutting ceremony Instead of taking the main road, the minor led her through a secluded path near a farmland. Suddenly, the two accused ambushed the 18-year-old, gagged her with a towel, and dragged her to the backside of a toilet owned by the 13-year-old’s family. Subsequently, the two men allegedly took turns to rape her. Both the perpetrators fled the scene after committing the crime. The survivor returned home and informed her family members about the incident. She was rushed to Jagatsinghpur district headquarters hospital (DHH). A doctor of the DHH said the girl suffered external injuries and was bleeding. “Her condition is stable after treatment.” Later in the night, the girl’s father, a daily wage labourer, filed an FIR in Jagatsinghpur police station. He alleged that the assailants also physically assaulted his daughter and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anyone. Jagatsinghpur SP Bhabani Shankar Udgata said acting on the complaint, police registered a case under sections 70 (2), 74 and 35 (2) of the BNS, along with section 6 of the POCSO Act. Both the accused have been arrested. A mobile phone was recovered from the crime scene and forensic teams are analysing it. Meanwhile, a fact-finding team of the BJD led by Bhubaneswar mayor Sulochana Das and former MLAs Chiranjib Biswal and Prasant Muduli met the survivor’s family. They also visited the DHH to enquire about the girl’s condition. The BJD team submitted a memorandum to the Jagatsinghpur SP demanding strict action against the accused. Leaders of Congress and Left parties also condemned the incident. Courtesy : TNIE Note: This news is originally published on https://thenewindianexpress.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights.
Dalit women reclaiming Punjab’s farmlands. ‘We are born on this land, have a right to it’
In village after village in the Malwa region, Dalit women have won the right to farm common land. They are now protesting and courting arrest to demand a new casteless settlement: Begumpura. Sangrur: Jasveer Kaur arrives on a shiny blue tractor and climbs down, her torn chappals sinking into the tilled soil. With glittering eyes and a faint smile, she surveys the newly planted paddy crop. “This land is ours,” she said proudly. It took Kaur several years of struggle to reach this moment. The seven acres of land in Sangrur’s Herike village aren’t in her name, but she fought and won the right to farm it. In village after village in the Malwa region, Dalit women like her are demanding what was long denied. They have already leveraged a 1961 law and turned it into a rallying cry for land, dignity, and ownership. The fire of hakk, or rights, is burning in their bellies. Now, Jasveer and hundreds of other women are part of a fresh agitation to claim 927 acres of unused estate land in Bir Aishwan village. They are marching, protesting, and courting arrest to demand a new settlement: Begumpura, a casteless village imagined by poet-saint Ravidas. “The Constitution of India has given us the right to own land, then why are we not given land just because we are from a lower caste?” said 41-year-old Jasveer. “We are born on this land and we have every right to have a piece of it.” Mustard fields, the Green Revolution, and, more recently, the farmers’ protests are the stories most associated with farming in Punjab. But beneath this image is a fraught history of caste discrimination. Dominant castes—primarily Jat Sikhs, along with Kamboj and Saini Sikhs—have sway over most of the farmland. Dalits, who make up about 32 per cent of Punjab’s population, own just 3.5 per cent of the state’s land. Most work as daily-wage labourers through heat waves and biting cold for around Rs 300 a day, planting and harvesting crops they have no claim on. But then, the Dalits in rural Punjab started fighting back. Their first weapon was a law that Punjab had passed in 1961. Under the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, one-third of village common land—known as panchayat land or shamlat deh— to be allotted to Scheduled Castes or Dalits for agricultural use. On paper, it gave Dalits the right to lease and farm these plots through panchayat auctions. In practice, the land stayed in the hands of dominant castes through dummy bidders and threats. The first major pushback came in 2008, when Dalit labourers in Benra village, Sangrur, took over panchayat land. In 2014, the Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC) began organising across the region, turning scattered protests into a coordinated campaign. Dalit women emerged as the heroes of this uprising. In their chappals and salwar-kameez, they stood on the roads, held up placards, and demanded their land. They faced off against Jats and other Chaudhrys (landlords) and braved arrests and beatings. The fierce battle spread like wildfire across the state. We women did not tell our husbands about the abuse we faced every day on the paddy fields because we feared we would not be allowed to work. Today we are here fighting for land In the Malwa region alone, Dalit families are now cultivating around 4,000 acres of land, according to the ZPSC. And now, many like Jasveer are demanding more. They are fighting for be-chirag (heirless) land to be redistributed to landless Dalits. The grit of Punjab’s Dalit women comes from years of daily indignities and casteist slurs on farms where they laboured or collected fodder. Today, they know they don’t have to tolerate it. “Dalit women have faced exploitation in the fields. They reared cattle and gathered fodder from the lands of the dominant caste,” said Ronki Ram, political science professor at Panjab University. “They did not want to depend on others’ land anymore and be subjected to everyday exploitation.” From a ‘nightmare’ to victory Until four years ago, Jasveer Kaur was just another woman in Herike village—feeding cattle, collecting fodder, raising her children, and working on a landlord’s fields. Her husband sold food from a thela, and the family scraped by on her daily earnings of Rs 300 from farm labour and selling milk. Men in the gurdwara called her “Churu Chamar”. Now she says they worry that Dalits like her might soon be called something else: landowners. On a pleasant July morning, the monsoon breeze brushed Jasveer’s hip-length hair as she briskly combed it. She was getting ready for a day in the fields. On such days, she likes to plait her hair. She gulped down three rotis with aloo ki sabzi and drank a glass of chilled water. Then she picked up her bright red dupatta and rushed to feed her three buffaloes—the mother, the father, and their newborn daughter. “Till three years ago, I was working at the farmland of the Chaudhrys. I used to collect the grass to feed the cattle from their field,” she said, as she scattered bhusa (fodder) for the animals. In many villages here, Dalit families rely on a mix of cattle rearing and daily-wage labour. Selling milk brings in some income, but fodder is always a challenge. For years, women like Jasveer gathered grass from the dominant caste’s fields and were regularly insulted for it. “It was a nightmare. It was usual for them to use abuse targeting our mothers and forefathers,” she recalled. Jasveer’s transformation began when members of the Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee came to Herike in 2021. She had never heard of the 1961 land law before. For the first time, someone told her she had a right to the soil beneath her feet. That same year, she and 14 other Dalit families in the village raised their voices during a panchayat land auction. They sat on dharnas and refused to work on the fields. After two years of pressure, the gram
“The church is ours, but why does the chariot not come to our streets?” — When Dalit Christians raised their voice, the bishop also rebelled!
Dalit Christians allege that the chariot is not brought to their locality, they are denied membership, the bishop protested Tamil Nadu/Tiruchi: Dalit Christians of Kottapalayam village near Thuraiyur began a hunger strike near the Tiruchi Collectorate on Monday. They alleged that they have been deliberately excluded from the ongoing annual festival of the century-old St. Mary Magdalene Church and are constantly being subjected to caste discrimination. The festival began on July 14 and the church comes under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kumbakonam. The protesters say that they have not been included in the festival plans for decades, have not been given a place in the church committee and the Rath Yatra is not taken to their area. “Donate, but do not ask questions” J., who has been associated with the church for a long time. “We are not charged with various church memberships like others are charged with. Instead, we are only asked to pay ‘donations’. The aim is to stop us from raising our voices,” said Dos Prakash. Bishop’s symbolic protest According to a report in The New Indian Express, the church’s bishop, Jeevanandam Amalanathan, said he will not participate in Tuesday’s Rath Yatra. “The caste discrimination that continues in the parish is worrisome. Christians from dominant castes are not willing to give equal rights to Dalit Christians,” he said. However, he also said that there has been no discrimination from the church’s side. “Not a single chariot comes to our streets” The protesters said that a total of seven chariots are taken out during the festival, but not a single chariot comes to the streets of Dalit settlements. “We were abused with casteist slurs and threatened not to intervene at the festival planning meeting on July 6,” said a protester. Parishioner Raj Nobili said, “Only after giving membership do we get the right to ask questions. That is why we are not being made members. The administration should at least ensure that a chariot comes to our street as well.” “Violation of Constitution” Human rights lawyer Joe Kennedy, who was part of the protest, said, “This is a violation of the right to equality given in the Constitution of India. The church has to break the wall of casteism that has spread within it.” The protesters submitted a memorandum to the District Revenue Officer (DRO) and demanded legal action against the church pastor and others who allegedly made casteist remarks and threatened them. Key demands: Equal rights in all religious and festive activities Formation of an inclusive parish council Legal action on caste discrimination According to revenue department sources, the concerned officials have been directed to investigate the matter. Rajan Chaudhary Courtesy : Hindi News
‘SECL Chudi-Sari Pehne Lo’: When tribal women staged a semi-nude protest in Korba, Chhattisgarh!
This is the first time that women have staged a semi-nude protest inside such an office. Korba- A shocking incident came to light in Kusmunda area of Korba district of Chhattisgarh, when about 20-25 land-displaced tribal women staged a semi-nude protest at the main gate of the office of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL). On July 18, the women staged this protest demanding proper compensation, jobs and rehabilitation after the acquisition of their ancestral lands. This is the first time that women have staged a semi-nude protest inside such an office. The women waved their bangles and sarees and shouted slogans- SECL Chudi-Sari Pehne Lo! Seeing this kind of anger and anger among the women, the administration was also shocked and the clips of the protest went viral on social media, after which the Chhattisgarh government was also severely criticized. Korba is a major industrial and mining area of Chhattisgarh, known for coal mines and power generation. SECL’s coal mines in Kusmunda are one of the largest mining projects in India. Large scale land acquisition was done for these projects, which includes ancestral lands of Korwa and other scheduled tribes. These communities were earning their livelihood through farming and forest resources on these lands for generations. Under the Forest Rights Act 2006, they have been given rights over land and forest resources, but these provisions have been violated repeatedly. SECL acquired these lands for coal mining and in return the affected families were promised compensation, jobs and rehabilitation. However, even after many years these promises have not been fulfilled, due to which there is deep disappointment and anger among the tribal communities. The employment case of land-displaced people has been pending for a long time, for which many years have passed since applying, but the land-displaced people could not get employment. The protesting women told that they had demonstrated and struck many times in the mine earlier also. The affected families said that their lands were snatched but they neither got proper compensation, nor jobs, nor rehabilitation facilities. SECL had promised jobs for the land displaced, but in many cases fake appointments were made. Some families alleged that other people were given jobs in their name or their rights were completely ignored. After the land snatching, these families have lost their livelihood and are facing financial difficulties. The protesting women said that their lands were snatched in the name of industrial development, but the big industrialists got the benefit, while the local tribal community was neglected. The president of Bhu-Visthaap Rojgar Ekta Mahila Kisan Kusmunda said that the persons employed fraudulently in place of the real land displaced should be removed. Also, repeated applications were made to keep the real heir. Despite complaining to the local administration and SECL officials several times, no concrete action was taken, which pushed these women to this extreme step. This protest attracted widespread attention at the social and administrative level. The incident was widely discussed on social media, especially on Twitter, and many called it a symbol of the government’s insensitivity. However, no official government statement or action has been confirmed in the matter yet. The protest also reflects the growing threat to the cultural and social identity of tribal communities. After the land was taken away, these communities have not only become economically weak, but their cultural roots are also in danger. Geetha Sunil Pillai Courtesy : Hindi News
MP Chhatarpur Police accused of torturing tribal youths by putting chilli powder in their private parts, three policemen suspended
Superintendent of Police Aagam Jain has suspended Naugaon police station’s ASI Shiv Dayal Valmiki, head constable Ram Jat and constable Arvind Sharma with immediate effect. Bhopal. A sensational case of brutality of Naugaon police station has come to light in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. Four youths of tribal society were taken into custody on suspicion of theft and not only brutally beaten, but also given inhuman torture by putting chilli powder in their private parts. In protest against the incident, Bhim Army workers gheraoed the Chhatarpur Superintendent of Police office on Saturday evening. When the matter escalated, three policemen were suspended. Meanwhile, Congress leader Digvijay Singh and Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar have assured justice by talking to the victims over the phone. What is the whole matter? Pratap Adivasi, a resident of Dharmapura village of Naugaon police station area, while talking to the media said that on the evening of July 15, at around 7:30 pm, he had gone towards Shikarpura road with his companions Shriram, Ritu, Meera and Balandi Adivasi. During this time, Naugaon police caught them and took them to the police station. According to Pratap, the police released them after questioning at 10:30 pm on July 15. But on July 16, they were again called to the police station and made to sit till 11 pm. On July 17, at 12 noon, the four youths were again taken into custody and brutally beaten on suspicion of stealing oil from the transformer. Not only this, according to the youths, the police crossed the limits of brutality by putting chilli powder in their private parts. After this, they were driven away from the police station without any case. The matter came to light when the condition of the victims deteriorated. Bheem Army gheraoed the Superintendent of Police office Bheem Army workers, along with the victims, gheraoed the office of Superintendent of Police Aagam Jain late on Saturday evening. The activists said that the youth of the tribal society have been treated like animals, which will not be tolerated. Three policemen suspended, investigation started Taking immediate action in the case, Superintendent of Police Agam Jain has suspended ASI Shiv Dayal Valmiki, Head Constable Ram Jat and Constable Arvind Sharma of Naugaon police station with immediate effect. Station in-charge Satish Singh clarified that some people were questioned on suspicion of theft, but no kind of beating or inhuman behavior was done. However, after the allegations of the victims and eyewitnesses, the role of the police is under suspicion. Digvijay Singh and Umang Singhar demanded action As soon as the information about the incident was received, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh spoke to the victim youths over the phone and assured them of justice. He also attacked the state government and said that atrocities are being committed against the tribals and the weaker sections continuously, and the administration is a mute spectator. Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar has also termed the matter serious and demanded strict action against the culprits. He said that police in Madhya Pradesh is becoming unbridled and tribal society is being continuously targeted. Ankit Pachauri Courtesy: Hindi News
Dalit woman and pregnant niece attacked in Gujarat! Caste violence captured in CCTV footage – Know what is the whole matter?
The Dalit woman accused the neighbors of using casteist abuses, assault and threats, while the other side also complained of forceful intrusion and attack. Gujarat: A dispute between neighbors that started over underground electricity repairs in Baroda village in Daskroi taluka of Ahmedabad district escalated to allegations of casteist abuses and assault. Both sides have lodged a police complaint against each other. According to the police, a 66-year-old Dalit woman has alleged that her upper caste neighbors abused her and her pregnant niece with casteist words, physically assaulted them and threatened to kill them. The incident took place on Sunday evening when the woman warned not to dig deep in the electricity repair work going on near her house, as there was a possibility of underground wiring. In the complaint, the woman said that when she was not heeded and the work continued, the dispute escalated and turned into violence. It is alleged that the neighbours snatched her stick and beat her as well as her niece. The woman says that the niece has injuries on her face and legs. She has submitted three video clips of the incident to the police as evidence and also named two people who allegedly intervened during the incident. On the other hand, the neighbours have also filed a complaint in return. They alleged that the Dalit woman and her niece forcibly entered their house and attacked them with an iron pipe and a wooden stick. The upper caste complainants say that they were threatened that they would be implicated in a false atrocity case and expelled from the society. The Vivekanand Nagar police station has registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (BNS) and the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the basis of complaints from both sides. Police say that the investigation into the case is ongoing. Rajan Chaudhary Courtesy : Hindi News
Dalit Christians allege discrimination in church, sit on hunger strike
Dalit Christians said for decades, they have not been allowed to pay subscription to the church and were kept out of planning committees. TIRUCHY: A section of Dalit Christians from Kottapalayam village near Thuraiyur sat on a hunger strike near the collectorate on Monday saying they have been facing discrimination and are not allowed to take part in the ongoing festival of the century-old St Mary Magdalene Church and other activities. The festival began on July 14. The church functions under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kumbakonam. Bishop Jeevanandam Amalanathan said he would not take part in the chariot procession which is scheduled on Tuesday to register his protest against the “persisting caste discrimination in the parish”. Dalit Christians said for decades, they have not been allowed to pay subscription to the church and were kept out of planning committees. Further, they alleged that the church chariot is not taken into their locality. “We were told by the priest and also several dominant caste Christians that this is not our festival. The church refuses to collect subscription from us as it does from others. Instead, we’re asked to make donations,” said J Doss Prakash, a long-time parishioner. The protesters submitted a petition to the DRO during the weekly grievances meeting seeking action against the parish priest and others who allegedly threatened Dalits during a festival planning meeting on July 6. “We were abused with casteist slurs and warned not to interfere,” said another member. R Raj Nobili, a parishoner, said “Once we pay subscription, we have the right to question. That is why they are not collecting it from us. Despite running seven chariots during the festival, not even the smallest one enters our streets. The district administration should at least ensure that the chariot comes to our area,” he said. “This is a violation of equality guaranteed by the Constitution. Even after raising this through latter to authorities concerned, not one has intervened,” said Jo Kennedy, a human rights lawyer who was also part of the protest. “The church must dismantle this caste wall from within,”he added. Their other demands include formation of an inclusive parish council, equal rights in religious and festival events, and legal action for caste-based discrimination. Bishop Jeevanandam Amalanathan told TNIE that he would boycott the chariot festival on Tuesday due to the persisting caste discrimination in the parish. He said dominant caste Christians are stubborn in their stand to not give equal rights to Dalit Christians. He, however, maintained that the church did not discriminate against any one. Sources in the revenue department to whom these petitions were forwarded, said they have asked the local officials to inquire into the issue. Courtesy : TNIE Note: This news is originally published on https://thenewindianexpress.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights.
Over 58% Dalit voters in Bihar think unemployment is biggest poll issue: survey
The survey was conducted and released by the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Associations also found that more than 27.4% Dalit voters in Bihar have ‘no trust’ in the Election Commission A Booth Level Officer checks documents during Special Investigation Revision to the electoral roll Drive at Kamalpur Village under Jalalgarh Block in Purnia district in Bihar. File A Booth Level Officer checks documents during Special Investigation Revision to the electoral roll Drive at Kamalpur Village under Jalalgarh Block in Purnia district in Bihar. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu More than 27.4% Dalit voters in Bihar have “no trust” in the Election Commission of India (ECI), a new survey released ahead of the Assembly Elections due in the State has found. It also shows that over 58% Scheduled Caste (SC) voters in the State thought that unemployment was the biggest issue in the upcoming polls. Over 12,000 new polling stations created in Bihar The survey was conducted and released by the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Associations (NACDAOR), a conglomerate of hundreds of associations across the nation. It covered a total of 18,581 SC voters from across the State and was conducted between June 10 and July 4, Ashok Bharti, Chairman of NACDAOR told The Hindu. The 2022 Bihar caste survey counted 19.65% of the State’s population as belonging to the Scheduled Castes. He added that since the Election Commission started its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the rolls as the survey was underway, one question was put on the survey mid-way, for which only around 8,500 responses could be gathered. Fear of losing vote To the question ‘Do you fear losing your vote in the new voter list?’, over 71% of respondents said yes and 23.4% said no with a little over 5% not expressing an opinion. Around 32 lakh voters yet to submit enumeration forms in Bihar, says Election Commission On the general question of whether they trusted the Election Commission to be impartial, over 27% said no, about 51% said yes, and 21% said they didn’t know. The survey asked a total of 11 questions such as ‘who is their favourite political leader at the national and state levels’, ‘how is the work of the State government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’, and ‘who do they hold most responsible for the caste enumeration that will now be conducted’. 94.68% of Bihar voters covered in electoral roll revision drive, says Election Commission It found that while over 47.5% of the respondents said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was their favourite leader at the national level, 40.3% said Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and about 12% said other politicians. Credit for caste census It further reported that to the question ‘who do they credit for the caste census?’, 33.15% respondents said Narendra Modi, 30.81% said Rahul Gandhi, and 27.57% said Bihar Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav while about 8% said the names of other politicians. Further, the survey showed that about 48% said the work of the Nitish Kumar-led government was “bad”, while about 45% said it was good. Opinion: The parameters of ‘success’ in Bihar’s poll roll revision Mr. Bharti told The Hindu, “A lot of people do surveys of Scheduled Castes, but hardly do many of them actually speak to us on the ground. This survey is of Dalits, by Dalits.” He explained that they went through the process of training enumerators to survey SC respondents across about 49 Assembly segments in the six regions of Bihar, namely Kosi, Mithilanchal, Seemanchal, Bhojpur, Champaran, and Magadh Pataliputra regions. Mr. Bharti said, “We have actually surveyed people on the ground. There was higher trust in our enumerators. Unfortunately for the question on SIR, we could not cover all respondents because it came midway.” The NACDAOR conducted this survey in collaboration with political consultancy firm The Convergent Media, and this is the second survey they have put out. Mr. Bharti said the first survey they did was ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections earlier this year. Abhinay Lakshman Courtesy : The Hindu Note: This news is originally published on https:/thehindu.com/ and is for use by the non-military/non-commercial community, especially those in the human rights sector.
Dalit youths allege illegal detention and custodial torture by cops in MP
Bhopal: Four Dalit youths accused police in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district of illegal detention and custodial torture. The youths alleged they were stripped, beaten for four days, and had chilli powder rubbed into their private parts to force a confession in a theft case. The victims, residents of the Kanjadpur Dharampura area, stated they were returning from a housewarming ceremony on July 15 when they stopped to urinate by the roadside. A Dial-100 police vehicle allegedly picked them up without explanation. One youth, who is disabled, was released, while the remaining four were taken to the police station, hung upside down, beaten with belts, and tortured. Police had previously claimed to have arrested five individuals for stealing transformer oil. The incident prompted protests by Bhim Army workers and the victims’ families, who marched to the SP office demanding action under the SC/ST Act and the suspension of the accused policemen. A sit-in was held outside the SP office, where authorities responded by locking the gates and cutting power to the premises. DIG Lalit Shakyawar later visited the site and assured that a medical examination would be conducted and action taken after investigation. Three of the victims have since undergone medical tests. “We have asked a senior officer to investigate the matter. CCTV footage from inside the police station is being examined,” said Chhatarpur SP Agam Jain. Families also alleged that one of the five detained youths is missing and feared he may have died in custody. A victim’s father-in-law further accused the police of threatening him with arrest and eviction from govt land if the protest continued. Former Congress MLA Neeraj Dixit also visited the protest site and demanded justice. A heavy police force from multiple stations was deployed. Investigations are currently underway. Courtesy : TOI Note: This news is originally published on https:/timesofindia.com/ and is for use by the non-military/non-commercial community, especially those in the human rights sector.
Do Dalits need permission to take water even after 75 years of independence? Madras High Court told the bitter truth of the country!
Taking a tough stand on caste discrimination, the Madras High Court directed the Tenkasi administration to ensure equitable distribution of water and stop injustice to Dalits. Chennai. The Madras High Court has strongly objected to the discrimination being done to the Scheduled Caste community in drawing water from public water sources and said that it is “shocking and sad even in the scientific age” that some communities still have to wait for their rightful water. Justice R.N. Manjula said that it is unfortunate that even today some communities get access to public resources only after other communities, while the Constitution and law give equal rights to all citizens. The court said, “Natural wealth like water is for everyone. It is very shocking that even in today’s scientific age, some communities have to stand for their turn. Are we not all part of the same human society?” ‘Administration cannot remain a mute spectator’ The High Court made it clear that even though it is not easy to root out caste and class-based mentality, those in power and administrative responsibility cannot remain mute spectators. The court said, “If those in the administration remain silent on these incidents, they will also be considered partners in this narrow mindset. We need practical and peaceful action, not ostentation.” The court described water as the ‘nectar of life’ and said that no citizen, especially elderly women, should have to struggle for drinking water throughout their lives. Case details The observations were made when the court was hearing a petition filed by a man named Thirumalaisamy, who sought suspension of the sentence awarded by the District Sessions Court of Tenkasi and grant of bail. Thirumalaisamy was found guilty under Section 3(1)(r) of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. It was alleged that on 3 December 2016, he used caste-related slurs and threatened to kill two persons working in his field. He was sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹1,000. The petitioner argued that since the incident did not take place in public view, the sections of the Act were not applicable. The complainant (a 65-year-old woman) objected and said that if Thirumalaisamy was granted bail, she would have to face inconvenience and fear even while fetching water as he had to pass near her house. Thirumalaisamy assured the court that he would not appear in front of the complainant, nor make any threat or gesture. The court, noting that the hearing of the appeal was not possible soon and the petitioner had promised not to pose any threat, granted him bail and suspended his sentence. The court also directed the petitioner to appear in court every month. Court’s instructions to end discrimination During the hearing, the court also mentioned that the 65-year-old complainant is facing a lot of difficulties in getting drinking water. On this, the court directed the District Collector of Tenkasi that there should be no discrimination in water distribution on the basis of caste in the village. The court gave the following orders to the officials: Adequate water connection and water supply should be ensured in all the streets. No community should be given priority in water distribution. No person or group should take excessive amount of water which causes difficulty to others. The court clarified that all citizens have equal rights on public property like water and it is the responsibility of the administration to protect this right. Rajan Chaudhary Courtesy : Hindi News