A surprising case of caste discrimination has surfaced from a village in Tamil Nadu, the house of Periyar movement, in which human feces had been discovered dumped in a water tank supposed for the Scheduled Caste network. The district government who went to analyze, discovered the horrors did now no longer quit there. The village nevertheless practices untouchability — to the quantity that the neighborhood tea store has a -glass gadget and the Dalits aren’t allowed in temple premises. The BJP is sending a group to analyze these days.
Pudukottai collector Kavitha Ramu and district police leader Vandita Pandey visited the Irayur village in crucial Tamil Nadu on Tuesday after lawsuits that a massive amount of human waste turned into discovered in a 10,000-litre water tank that turned into providing ingesting water to the Dalit network of round a hundred humans.
Villagers stated in current days, lots of their kids had fallen ill. After docs recommended that the ingesting water supply will be inflicting the problem, a few younger guys climbed the tank and checked inner.
“A massive amount of feces turned into discovered dumped in the water tank. So plenty so the water had became yellow. Without understanding that, for every week or so, the humans had been ingesting this water. When kids fell ill — this is while the reality got here out,” stated Moksha Gunavalagan, a political activist withinside the area.
It isn’t always but clean who’s responsible. The fence across the water tank have been opened withinside the previous couple of days. “When the younger guys climbed the tank, they discovered the lid open… No one has stated seeing absolutely everyone climb and unload the waste into the water tank,” collector Kavitha Ramu advised NDTV.
Locals say caste discrimination runs deep withinside the area. For 3 generations, that they’d in no way been allowed into the village temple. The village tea store nevertheless has a exclusive set of glasses for the Scheduled Castes.
The Collector and the leader of the district police went to test for themselves and a case turned into filed in opposition to the tea store owner. The additionally took the whole Scheduled Caste network to the village temple and requested them to discover the men and women who stopped them from getting into the premises.
A prayer ritual turned into in development on the time. Suddenly, a female belonging to the so-known as higher castes, reputedly in a trance, declared that she turned into possessed with the aid of using the deity who does now no longer need the decrease caste humans withinside the temple. The police have filed a case in opposition to her as well.
Sindhuja, who holds a BSc diploma in mathematics, stated she had in no way entered the temple premises in her 22 years of developing up withinside the village. “For 3 generations, we’ve got now no longer been allowed in the temple. That the collector these days took us inner is an issue of tremendous happiness for us. This proper ought to preserve and now no longer simply here, however each vicinity that desires to maintain us out,” she stated.
The 22-year-antique says they’re inclined now no longer simply to pay taxes however additionally make contributions to the preservation and upkeep of the temple. “We aren’t much less in any manner and need to be handled as such,” he stated.
Another resident, Lata, stated in view that she married and got here to the village, she had in no way entered the temple either. ”For the primary time, I went inner and noticed what the god seems like on this temple. So, we’re very happy. But this ought to preserve. It ought to now no longer be only for these days.”
Nearly 100 years ago, lengthy earlier than Independence, Ramasamy Periyar had commenced the temple access protests withinside the state. It additionally stimulated the Dravidian movement – a philosophy that also dominates politics withinside the state, which makes the casteist backlash all of the extra surprising. The collector stated no instant cause for the unexpected caste anxiety had come to mild so far.