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CASTE
BARRIERS:
Why would they cancel their programmes to mourn the death of lowly fishermen? 2. 'Untouchables' dispose tsunami dead in Nagapattinam, New Indian Express dated 3/1/05. "Untouchables", regarded as the lowest in India's caste hierarchy are performing the onerous task of clearing the area of rotten corpses left in the aftermath of last week's tsunami attacks. 3. Tsunami can’t wash this away: hatred for Dalits, The New Indian Express dated 7/1/05 There's something, which even an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale and a tsunami that kills over 1 lakh people can’t crack: the walls between caste. 4. Tsunami or not, Govt still ignores the Dalits, The New Indian Express dated 8/1/05 Doors are being slammed in the face of Dalit survivors here - and the Government is quietly doing some of the slamming. 5.
India should end caste bias in tsunami relief: Human rights Watch, uniindia.com
dated 16/1/05 6. Voiceless victims cry foul in relief distribution, The New Indian Express dated 25/1/05 Panchayat leaders from the fishermen community and other influential men had called the shots in the tsunami-hit regions and were largely responsible for blocking relief material from reaching many voiceless victims in the coastal hamlets, survivors in several villages have complained. CHENNAI: Emperor Nero fiddled when Rome was burning. We have heard this before. But a section of Chennai on Sunday lived up to the saying, literally. For the dozens of sabhas that are conducting the December Music Festival, life went on as usual. Carnatic music, vocal and instrumental, was in full flow and connoisseurs were entranced in the virtuosity of the artistes. It was as if the greatest tragedy faced by the State had not taken place. When this paper contacted various sabhas to find out whether the concerts had been cancelled, they were not. ‘‘Come sir. Tickets are available,’’ was the reply from various sabhas. ‘‘What is the point in blaming them? You know many sabhas went ahead with their festival even on the day the death of MS Subbulakshmi shook the entire nation. Why would they cancel their programmes to mourn the death of lowly fishermen?’’ snorted one retired official who is associated with many of the sabhas. TV channels and the FM radio stations merrily belted out lewd songs right through. Yuppie announcers on the FM were at their flippant best. Shopping also went on as usual in the City’s shopping complexes. Spencer Plaza was bursting at the seams and the crowd there was watching excitedly the glitzy events organised in connection with Christmas. Manmit Singh, a student from Vellore, said he had just come to Spencer to chill out. ‘‘I don’t feel bad about the people who died. It’s good if India’s population is reduced,’’ he said. Mary Daniel of Pudupet rationalised that perhaps people were not moved too very much because they had not witnessed it personally. ‘‘They watched the tragedy unfolding only on the TV. What they saw on the tube was gory all right, but I don’t think it had any deep impact. People shook away the images after momentary feelings of pity. After all, hardly a few of the spending classes were affected by the tsunamis,’’ she noted. Ali, an auto consultant agreed. ‘‘People don’t take anything seriously unless they are personally affected. I was anxious in the morning when the news broke out and I went to the beach to check if my friends were safe. They were all right and I heaved a sigh of relief. Now I’m relaxed, what to do? That’s human nature.’’ Srinivas and Ganesh Gosh found shopping happily on the mall, admitted they were there to enjoy as had been their wont during weekends. ‘‘What can we do, you think? If called up, we will surely go for a rescue operation. Otherwise, what harm in our having some fun?’’ they asked. 2.
'Untouchables' dispose tsunami dead in Nagapattinam, New Indian Express
dated 3/1/05. The overwhelming majority of the 1,000 or so men sweating away in the tropical heat to clear the poor south Indian fishing town of Nagapattinam, which bore the brunt of the giant wave, are lower caste "dalits" from neighbouring villages. Locals being too afraid of disease and sickened by the foul odour, refuse to join the grim task of digging friends and neighbours out of the sand and debris. They just stand and watch the dalits perform the work. Although it has been a week since the tsunami struck, and the destruction too remained confined to a tiny strip by the beach and the port, the devastation was so fierce that several bodies located by the stench and the flies are still being discovered daily. The task itself is sweaty and backbreaking with the shifting sand and rubble making even standing difficult. "We get the dead bodies from those places where no one dares to go because of fear of diseases. So we are required here," said Sanjay Guru, a volunteer from Mumbai. Guru and other sanitation workers from neighbouring municipalities are working round the clock to clear Nagapattinam, for an extra 50 cents a day and a meal. The smell of death still hangs heavily in the area, mixing with the sea breeze and the almost refreshingly tart smell of the antiseptic lime powder that has turned the streets and paths white. More than 5,525 people, close to 40 percent of India's estimated total 14,488 fatalities, died along this small stretch of pure white beach, where the huts of poor fishermen were built on the beach itself. "First we clear the bodies from hospitals and after that we cremate them straight away. We also took a round of the places and found bodies. There is no problem for us," said Ravi, a dalit who is also involved in the task of finding and disposing off the dead bodies. Mohan, another worker said: "If my relatives would have died, I would have done the same thing I am doing now." In the early hours of the tsunami disaster, Mohan and his colleagues worked feverishly to clear the thousands of dead bodies without gloves, masks or even shoes in some cases. Although they are now better equipped, the mask does not in any way prevent the gagging smell of rotten human flesh, which becomes almost overpowering as the body is dug out, from lodging somewhere deep at the back of the mouth. Each new body discovered is painstakingly prised free of the wet sand, torn palm thatch and debris, mostly by hand. After which it is carried on a mat to the beach and placed on a pyre and consigned to the flames. 3.
Tsunami can’t wash this away: hatred for Dalits, The New Indian
Express dated 7/1/05 That’s why at Ground Zero in Nagapattinam, Murugeshan and his family of four have been living on the streets in Nambiarnagar. That’s why like 31 other families, they have been thrown out of relief camps. That’s why they are hounded out of schools they have sneaked into, they are pushed to the rear of food and water lines, given leftovers, not allowed to use toilets or even drink water provided by an UN agency. That’s why some NGOs are setting up separate facilities for them. Because they are all Dalits. They are survivors from 63 damaged villages—30 of them flattened—all marooned in their own islands, facing the brunt of a majority of fishermen who are from the Meenavar community—listed in official records as Most Backward Class (MBC)—for whom Dalits are still untouchable. This website's newspaper toured the camps to find an old story of caste hatred being replayed in camp after camp: • In the GVR Marriage Hall Relief Camp, Dalits cannot drink water from tanks put up by UNICEF. The Meenavars say they ‘‘pollute’’ the water. • In the Nallukadai Street Relief Camp, a Meenavar Thalaivar, or leader, grabbed all cartons of glucose biscuits delivered by a Coimbatore NGO. The Dalits were told: these are not for you. • At Puttur Relief Camp, the Meenavars have hoarded family relief kits, rice packets, new clothes and other relief material. When the Dalits asked for some, they paid a heavy price—they had to spend the night on the road. • At the Neelayadatchi Temple Camp, Dalits are not allowed inside the temple, especially when rice and cash doles are being handed out. • Dalits from three villages taking shelter at Ganapati cinema hall in Tharambagadi are thrown out every night because the Meenavar fisherwomen say they did not ‘‘feel safe’’ falling asleep with Dalits around. • So 32 ostracised Dalit families took shelter in the GRM girls’ school in Thanjavur. But four days ago, even the school asked them to vacate saying it was due to re-open. Those doing the discriminating brush all this aside. Says Chellayya, a Meenavar fisherman at a Tharambagadi camp: ‘‘These Dalits have been playing mischief, going back to the villages and looting houses. That’s why we don’t want them around here.’’ To which Dalit activist K Darpaya says: ‘‘What’s left in the houses for Dalits to take? And where will they keep the loot even if we assume they have taken something? In the relief camps? On the road side?’’ There’s an irony here. For, the district administration and relief agencies have to depend on the strong network of Meenavar fishermen to disburse aid and relief. But so rampant has the discrimination become that relief in-charge for Nagapattinam district Shantasheela Nayar, Secretary, Rural Development, is deputing District Adi Dravidar Welfare Officers to relief camps. ‘‘They will look into the problem and report back on what can be done to put an end to this. We certainly do not discriminate but if the fishermen themselves are doing it because of their local status, what can the Government do?’’ says Nayar. Talk to some of the victims and instead of bitterness and anger, there is grief and helplessness. ‘‘In Nagapattinam, three relief camps we went to denied us shelter saying they had no space. At the Nataraja Damayanti high school, the watchman refused to let us in,’’ says Murugeshan. At first, the families did not understand why but as door after door slammed in their faces, it became clearer. They approached their local Municipal Councillor K Tilagar. ‘‘He assured us we would be given shelter soon but he disappeared,’’ says another survivor Anjamma. In the neighbouring GVR camp, Dalit fishermen said they are being nudged out of relief and compensation queues. ‘‘We are inside the camp but kept in the far corner. Whenever officials and trucks come to give food, we are left out because nobody allows us to get near the trucks. Some men form a ring around us and prevent us from moving ahead in the queue,’’ says Saravanan, a Dalit survivor. ‘‘The Meenavars are more privileged as they get to sleep inside the rooms and are first to receive food and water. We have to sleep outside in the verandahs or in the open ground,’’ says Jivanana. Kesavan, a Dalit of Nambiarnagar, says he was prevented from drinking water from a plastic tank put up in the hamlet on Monday. ‘‘We are forced to bring water in plastic cans from outside the village. The Collector’s office has put up the tank here and provides clean water but it is not for us,’’ he says. V Vanitha, a Class X Dalit student, says adolescent girls are prevented from using toilet areas at Tharambagadi. ‘‘Small children have no problem but it is an ordeal for us. There are no toilets here and they prevent us from going to the area which serves as an open toilet,’’ she says. Says activist Darpaya: ‘‘Dalits are not allowed to drink water from tanks put up by UNICEF. Even in relief camps, Meenavars don’t want to sit with Dalits and have food. Some of them manage to get rice but other relief items coming in like biscuit packets, milk powder and family household kits are denied to Dalits.’’ Says M Jayanthi, a coordinator of South Indian Fishworkers Society (SIFS): ‘‘Dalits are facing discrimination in all relief camps where they are present. But the Society does not want to raise the issue as it would complicate things further. Without making it public, we are opening separate facilities for Dalits exclusively,’’ she says. Sevai, an NGO-based in Karaikal, Pondicherry, 20 kms from Nagapattinam, is the first organisation to address the issue. Coordinator R Indrani says: ‘‘Since Dalits are not receiving sufficient food and water, we have started cooking for them in separate kitchens. They come from wherever they are taking shelter and we provide them whatever they want. We are also considering separate camps for them.’’ Several NGOs which noticed the problem raised the issue during their meeting with District Collector M Veerashanmugha Moni. ‘‘But no one is willing to take up the matter at the field level as this could complicate things. We don’t want friction between the two castes by trying to address it during this crisis,’’ says the team leader of NGO Accord, which is working among Dalits. 4.
Tsunami or not, Govt still ignores the Dalits, The New Indian Express
dated 8/1/05. On Thursday, this website’s newspaper reported how Dalits from 63 affected villages are facing the brunt of the powerful Meenavar fishermen (a Most Backward Class): being thrown out of relief camps, pushed to the rear of food and water lines, not being allowed to take water from UNICEF facilities and in some cases not even being allowed to use the toilet. Now it's been learnt that the Government, instead of ensuring justice, was reinforcing this divide-both caste and communal. In fact, a day after the killer waves struck and thousands began pouring into these camps, revenue officials were asked to quietly go about dividing the victims and report to their superiors. They were asked to see that the numerically powerful and politically significant Meenavars had their “exclusive” relief camps. The equally battered Muslims, Dalits, Nadars, Pillais, Devars and other lower castes- mostly non-fishermen- were shunted into camps of their own. This has since been accomplished in most parts of this district. When asked how the Government could endorse this discrimination, Nagapattinam Sub Collector Dr Umanath said that this was a conscious decision and a practical one. “There are the real divisions and distrust among the communities,” he told this website’s newspaper on Friday, “a crisis like this is no time to experiment with casteist and religious amity.” The Government, Umanath said, just could not risk putting them up all together. When asked what the risk was, Umanath declined to comment. His defence that this is a “practical” decision has few takers. “This is sad. The Government is actually reinforcing the ancient divides and hatreds. Until the tsunami, they could at least tolerate each other. See what happens when this whole thing gets over, now,” says Father Gunalan, pastor of Asia's first Protestant Church, the 298-year-old New Jerusalem Church in Tarangambadi, one of the worst-hit coastal villagers. Gunalan said it was appalling to see those belonging to different communities stopping relief trucks on the road and diverting them to the relief camps of their own community. The camps of the powerless denominations bore the brunt of this. Another fallout is that villages in neighbouring coastal stretches that the waves spared now have bargain deals. “Relief is now being virtually dumped in some of the camps here. So even the kids carry a few stoves, mats, vessels and other relief material to sell in other villages.” The pastor says some Muslim homes were looted in the area soon after the waves struck. “That was ironic. The first people who went around helping survivors of all communities and rushing people to hospitals were men of the Tamil Muslim Munnetra Kazhakam,” he said. Many Muslim families had fled their homes, but are now coming back. “We have now our own security system in place. Our men take turns to guard our area day and night,” says Abdul Haleem, president of the Tarangambadi Muslim Jamaat. He said seven looters were caught and handed to the police, on Tsunami day. “We foiled an attempt even last night.” One of the relief camps that the Government gave to the non-Meenawar communities here was the local Jnanapoo Illam School. Most of its occupants had lost their homes to the waves. This morning, officials came knocking with the District Collector's order asking them to vacate, and they meekly did. With nowhere to go, to plead, they trudged to the Tehsildar's office, a few kilometres away in Porayar. A few hours later, officials there said all of them have been asked to go to the village's only movie hall, converted into a camp. At this Ganapathi movie hall, a few Meenawars at its entrance said they had asked these people to go away to a neighbouring marriage hall. But they were not allowed in there, either. And no one claimed to know where these 180-odd men women and children eventually went. 5. India should end caste bias in tsunami relief: Human Rights Watch, uniindia.com dated 16/1/05 Washington, Jan 16 (UNI) Citing discrimination in relief to tsunami victims, Human Rights Watch called on the Indian government to ensure that tsunami victims receive assistance in ''an equitable manner without caste or religious bias.'' The New York based rights group said it has received credible reports of discrimination in tsunami-stricken areas against Dalit communities by the authorities as well as by some aid groups and local communities. It called on the Indian government to make efforts to counter caste or religious discrimination throughout the entire post- tsunami process of relief, rehabilitation and redevelopment. ''In the aftermath of the tsunami, the Indian government should try to help Dalits who may be excluded from equitable relief and employment opportunities," said Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch. ''The government should immediately ensure that there is equitable and unbiased rehabilitation by including Dalit rights activists, both male and female, in rehabilitation committees at all levels.'' About 10,000 people died in India in the December 26, tsunami most of them in Tamil Nadu state. A large number of victims were from fishing communities, perceived as coming from higher castes, who live along the coast. Dalits who live further inland lost their livelihood and access to water because their wells were filled with seawater. Human Rights Watch said that according to many press reports and an on-site investigation by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), some higher-caste fishing communities refused to share emergency shelter and rations with the Dalits. The NCDHR investigation also documented incidents in which authorities in parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu provided Dalits with less relief and support than other victims, the group added. Dalit areas have been the last to have electricity and water supplies restored during rehabilitation efforts, it said. ''The government should ensure that all government and NGO activities take steps to combat caste discrimination in the longer-term reconstruction efforts," said Adams. ''India has excellent legislation to prevent caste- based discrimination, but it should implement these laws to avoid adding the problems of caste-discrimination to the misery caused by the tsunami.'' UNI 6. Voiceless victims cry foul in relief distribution, The New Indian Express dated 25/1/05. CUDDALORE: Panchayat leaders from the fishermen community and other influential men had called the shots in the tsunami-hit regions and were largely responsible for blocking relief material from reaching many voiceless victims in the coastal hamlets, survivors in several villages have complained. Many officials remained mute spectators to this discrimination and were forced to toe the line drawn by the panchayat leaders, they alleged. The community panchayat, selected by local men for a period of one year, is a sovereign body in the village. The womenfolk don’t have any role in choosing these leaders. As the local body had been appropriating all the powers, including relief distribution, complaints of nepotism and irregularities had arisen. According to an official, the leaders had collected all the solatium extended to the victims by the government for purchasing fish nets. Two days ago, the district administration had distributed aid ranging from Rs 10,000 to 6,000 among the fishermen for purchasing fishing nets. The officials and the NGOs were largely dependent on the inputs provided by community leaders for extending relief packages, said a survivor, Govindan of Pudukuppam. This resulted in many affected people being denied of assistance, he complained. ‘‘Whenever such incidents occurred, officials intervened in the matter and solved the problem,’’ said Gnanaprakasam, tahsildar, Cuddalore. However, another top official engaged in supervising relief operations confirmed the prevalence of discrimination at all the fishermen habitations in the district and said, ‘‘The local panchayat is the supreme power in the village.’’ While the community leaders and others in their circle have amassed stocks of the emergency assistance, many tsunami victims have received very little help, he said. The local community leaders who denied the charges claimed there was no bias in the distribution of the relief package. A community leader in Devanampttinam Kuppuraj said, ‘‘Aid was distributed by the officials themselves.’’ Another panchayat leader in Killai, Abhimanyu, said, ‘‘There was no malpractice in the distribution network. All the victims had received their fair share of the relief assistance.’’
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