By: Amit Thorat
Three members of a Dalit family in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar were killed, one of them decapitated before being thrown into a dry well in Jawkhede Khalsa village, on the night of October 20. The investigation is still on and the jury out on whether it was an act of caste violence or the result of a dispute. In recent times, however, it seems there is a surge in the number of reported acts highlighting caste-based violence. Ahmednagar district seems to have acquired a dubious distinction for being most violent against Dalits. In this district, about 44 cases of atrocities were registered in 2012, which increased to 112 in 2013. About 79 cases had been already been registered till October 2014.
In Maharashtra, during a 16-year period between 1995 and 2011, about 4,256 cases of atrocities were registered under the atrocities act by Dalits, which comes to about 266 cases per year. What is striking is that while there was a decline in the per year cases from 343 in 1995 to 136 in 2002, thereafter the numbers have increased steadily, from 136 in 2002 to 304 in 2012. This increasing trend in atrocities indicates the persistence of caste, with increased intolerance and violence against Dalits.
Caste discrimination and violence is a national problem. However, little is known about the day-to-day occurrence of this practice. The India Human Development Survey (IHDS 2), conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland in 2011-12, asked the respondent a direct question: “Does anyone in your family practise untouchability?” In case the response to this question was in the negative, a follow-up question was asked, “Would it be okay for a Scheduled Caste person to enter your kitchen or use your utensils?” The idea was to know, assuming a household had acquaintances who belonged to the lower castes, if they would have free access to household utensils and, say, even the kitchen, supposed to be the purest part of the household. The IHDS is the largest non-government, pan-Indian household survey. It covers over 42,000 households, representative of class and social group.
Results from the combined responses to these two queries show that across India, 27 per cent of households admitted to practising untouchability. Many who responded to the first question in the negative responded positively to the second. How many of us even in urban India keep separate cups and plates to serve food to our domestic helps? This is despite the fact that they clean our houses, tend to our infants and even cook our food. The notion
of purity or pollution takes strange forms, indeed.
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