Untouchability Unmasked in "Singaara" Chennai!

THE word "Singaara (Beautiful) Chennai” was coined when the present deputy chief minister and the so-called choice for the future chief minister, M K Stalin, took over the reins in Chennai Corporation as mayor. That was really a dream for every Chennai-ite, and that remains a mere dream even now. The myth like "there is no untouchability in cities" was disproved by the existence of Untouchability Walls in urban areas.

Though concrete information remained for long elusive regarding the capital city, the Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) has brought out the realty by surveying Chennai, thus exposing the ugly side of the "Singaara" City. For this purpose, the TNUEF had deputed 80 volunteers to carry out the survey. As many as 31 locations in the city were selected and the volunteers met 775 people. This was carried out in October 2010. The survey report was released to the press on December 29. P Sampath (president of the TNUEF), K Samuel Raj (general secretary, TNUEF), R Jayaraman (treasurer, TNUEF), K Swaminathan (state secretary, TNUEF) and R Krishnamoorthy (convenor, TNUEF in South Chennai) were present at the press meet.

The detailed questionnaire meant for the survey incorporated issues like land patta, toilet facilities in houses, maintenance of public conveniences, health hazards, maintenance of houses of the Tamilnadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), availability of ration shops, social welfare schemes, school education, playgrounds, roads, drinking water and hospital facilities etc.

The general belief that no oppression in the name of caste takes place in the city was then belied. The city has its own story of caste discriminations. The censuses of 1991 and 2001 have earlier presented a bleak scenario. It was claimed that, post-1991, dalits have got jobs and their share in the middle class population has increased. It is, therefore, surprising to note that the ratio of dalits in the city population has come down between 1991 and 2001.

In 1991, dalit population in Chennai was 13.78 per cent but it got reduced to 13.76 per cent in 2001. "This is because of the eviction of dalits from their areas in the name of development," said P Sampath while releasing the survey report. Also, most of these dalits are living in the Chennai slums. This in itself proves that discrimination is alive and kicking in the Chennai metro.

About 60 per cent of these dalits are living in places where there is no water, nor ditches or litter bins. They are staying on the banks of Koovam and Adyar rivers and of Buckingham Canal. In the past 38 years, the Tamilnadu Slum Clearance Board has built only 72,000 houses. In fact, an ambitious plan has been announced to make Chennai hut free by 2013. The real intention seems to be to throw the dalits out of the city rather than rehabilitating them.

The discrimination in the casteist sense gets reflected in the jobs they perform. They are doing the "demeaning" jobs in which manual work is involved. Many streets are named after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, but these have remained as the dalits-only residential areas. Dalits are not welcomed in posh areas like West Mambalam, T Nagar, Kodambakkam, Triplicane and Mylapore. Even those who are in coveted government posts do not get a house on rent to stay here.

There are places where dalits are living for the last 80 years but they have not yet get the pattas for their plots. Likewise, there are various other places where dalits have been living for the last 50 to 60 years but have been denied pattas. Everyday, they live in the fear of eviction. Even when the TNUEF volunteers went to these areas with their job of survey, the residents though that government officials had come and were perplexed that their fears of eviction had come true. However, when the intentions of the surveyors became clear, they briefed them in detail.

Most of the dalit students are studying in government schools and municipal corporation schools. As far as their general health is concerned, they live in such places as can be described as health hazardous only. Safe drinking water remains a distant dream for dalits in almost all of the dalit areas. Most of these places have no hospital facilities. Even if there is any, doctors are not regular. Dalits hardly get any medicines in these places. Many dalits are not aware of the social welfare schemes that are supposedly being implemented for them.

In the name of development, dalits are being thrown out of the city. This act had devastated their economic conditions. Many of them have lost their jobs and some of them have left since they cannot go all the way from outskirts to the city. The conditions of their women are still worse. Their girls are being married off at very early ages. Their bad economic conditions have making them sex workers.

Dalits have no place in the temple administration. Conversion to Christianity has not been a balm to the disease. In CSI churches too, dalits remained outside of the administration. They are not allowed to contest the church elections.

What happened in Lalgarh?

In yet another brutal attack six people were killed and 15 others seriously injured when Maoists and Trinamool Congress activists jointly opened fire on a group of villagers at Netai at Lalgarh under Binpur block in West Midnapore district of West Bengal January 7 morning. Scared by the growing people’s resistance against Maoist-Trinamool terrorism and violence the Maoists have resorted to a reign of terror with the help of Trinamool activists.

It was on December 31 a massive rally was held at Lalgarh in which participation of local villagers was spontaneous to voice against Maoist-Trinamool violence and for restoration of peace in Jangalmahal. It created wrath among the Maoists who in retaliatory measures have started terrorizing the innocent village people.

With this in mind a group of armed Maoist cadres under the leadership of Tanmoy Roy, who was once a secretary of the pro-Maoist Janaganer Committee (PCPA) but now a Trinamool leader, swung into armed action in the morning of January 7 and started indiscriminate firing on villagers protesting against the Maoist menaces. As a result 6 villagers were killed and 15 others seriously injured.

Deepak Sarkar, secretary of West Midnapore district CPI(M), in a statement, demanded immediate arrest of those who were responsible for the murder. The CPIM) brought out processions in Lalgarah on January 8 to condemn the incident.

Untouchability Modernised!

UNTOUCHABILITY practices are going "modern" now. This was evident from the recent exposure in Nagarajapuram, a village that is there in the outskirts ofCoimbatore city. In the name of resettling the dalits, they were driven to almost no man's land years ago. But the expansion of the city and its sub-urban areas brought them near again. So the profit minded real estate companies have resorted to a new strategy to keep dalits away from their area. Blocking the way for dalits to have access to the area, they expect the value of the land to remain high.

This has happened in many places and Nagarajapuram was no different. In this place, hundreds of dalit families are living since 1976. The real estate promoters have built a wall that was measuring 10 feet in height and 2 feet in width and the length is close to a kilometre. To have direct access to the main road, therefore, most of the people had to take many extra steps. The building of the wall did not happen overnight. But the landowners of the other side did it clandestinely. It was carried out during the last two years. Dalit people on the other side woke up only when the last 30 metres length of the path was closed.

A team led by U K Sivagnanam, district convenor of the Tamilnadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) recently visited the spot. When the team was convinced that this is an untouchability wall indeed, TNUEF decided to take up the issue. Next day, Tamil daily Theekkathir prominently published the news and that created tremors in the administration. At the very first sight, the officials were convinced that the wall was unlawful. The sketch for the plots also showed a 30 metres path. The people also complained to the officials that the closure of the path had made them feel like imprisoned. The only hitch was that the wall itself was on the border of not only for two panchayats but of two taluks as well. This did not deter the TNUEF to press for the demolition of the wall. A series of agitations was planned.

Expecting a backlash, the district administration acted fast lest there was some mass action. On December 25, revenue officials demolished two portions of the untouchability wall. These two stretches of 30 feet and 23 feet now provide the dalit people direct access to the main road. Though the structure has remained largely intact, the purpose of the land promoter has been defeated. Just after the demolition, one could find joyful women and children walking through the newly restored path.

Uthapuram was just a beginning in of exposing the untouchability walls in Tamilnadu. Somebody sought to belittle its impact by saying that villages are yet to be radicalised. Another wall in Periyar Nagar, that is in the heart of "South India's Manchester," i.e. Coimbatore city, exposed that too. One more wall was found in the municipal limits of Trichy. Now in the news is Udumalpet, a small town in Tirupur district. A wall has been raised by a realtor to block the way for dalits.

The world is getting modernised. Yet the caste oriented society somehow finds space to land its feet. The landing is atrocious. The TNUEF, through its well oiled machinery, has conducted many surveys. In its first state conference, a list of atrocities was released. But the recent problems have brought new varieties of atrocities. In another village near Coimbatore, a Dalit cannot talk on his cellphone in front of a caste Hindu. He has to switch off his phone or cut the call. When this came up, A Raja of the "spectrum" notoriety was the union telecom minister. This village falls in his constituency.

"SOFTWARE" FOR UNTOUCHABILITY

Another incident of untouchability has crossed all the limits. One Mr Jayan had registered himself with tamilmatrimony.com in order to find a life partner. He is a Christian and was registered in that category. When a few proposals came for him, he surfed some of the profiles. In one profile, “caste no bar” was mentioned. He was happy to see that. But his happiness did not last for more than a moment. The very next column said "SC/ST excuse." Jayan was furious to see that. He did not stop there.

He called up the contact number and blasted them. His argument was: people may prefer one or another particular caste in the matrimony ads, but how come these people could say, "we do not want these and these castes." He rang up a few newspaper offices to give vent to his anger. He said, “This is untouchability modernised. In fact, the website that offers this service should pull up its socks. The software that serves the purpose of casteist requirements should be thrown away by thetamilmatrimony.com.”

The TNUEF had listed around 85 types of atrocities committed upon dalits in Tamilnadu. In the states where the survey has been done, Gujarat stands first. As many as 99 types of atrocities have been listed by the Navsarjan, a non-profit voluntary organisation. It seems that Tamilnadu is now poised to take Gujarat over by creating new, "modern" types of atrocities.

The impact of the agitations run by the TNUEF is being felt. The people have started looking up to the TNUEF for solving their problems concerning social issues. Uthapuram is leading from the front. Wherever an untouchability wall is found, people take inspiration from Uthapuram. The unsolved problems in Uthapuram make the people more steely. The TNUEF has announced a series of programmes for the next year. The year 2011 is going to be an eventful year for the TNUEF.