Take for instance, the remote village of Aamkot in Biramhatola VDC. Of the total 60 households in the village, around 45 families belong to the so-called upper castes.
There are two sets of water taps in this predominately non-Dalit village - borne out of the notion of ´untouchability´- not to allow the Dalit residents from using the tap meant for the so-called upper castes.[break]
So deep-rooted is the Hindu religious orthodoxy in the village that the discrimination is not merely confined to the caste system, and extends to gender as well.
Next to the drinking water taps set up for the Dalits and the non-Dalits, there is yet another tap for menstruating women in the village.
“We have separate water taps designated to each community,” says a local belonging to the Dalit community in the village adding, “We are strictly barred from the tap meant for the upper caste. They even resort to action against us if we try to use their tap.”
A woman from the Dalit community said that though some literate upper caste youths were liberal, most of the elderly remain strictly conservative.
“To this day, some old people from the so-called upper caste sprinkle water dipped on gold to sanctify their water tap if they saw any of us using their tap,” she adds. “And, it really depresses us and makes us feel humiliated.”
According to her, things do not end just by purifying the water tap. The so-called non-Dalit locals make it a point to berate them -- using foul language.
All the 13 families of the Dalit community in the village are illiterate, they have not been able to strongly oppose the relentless discrimination against them, says Dhana Devi Upadhaya, a local belonging to the so-called upper caste. “We cordially interact with the Dalits, we don´t discriminate them. But our elders do,” she says.
Aamkot is just a representative village. Even today, the caste-based discrimination pervades large parts of the district.
In Piluchaur, a common market for around five Village Development Committees, no one from the Dalit community is allowed to spend a night in any of the local hotels, says Bhuwan B.K, a student.
“We are not allowed to enter a hotel, and we are forced to eat outside even if we pay for food,” he bemoans.
After he was not allowed to stay in any of the hotels in the marketplace sometime back, he adds, he had to spent the entire night on the sidewalk.
Jaya Raj Jaisi, a right activist struggling to end the caste-based discrimination in the district, says the ill tradition will persist in society unless the traditional and superstitious mind-set of the locals is changed. “Public awareness is the need of the hour. I appeal to all concerned authorities to organize awareness program for establishing an equalitarian society,” says he.
He adds that the caste-based discrimination in the district persists also due to the protection provided by some local political leaders to the offenders.
Last year, two Dalit children were beaten for entering a temple in Martadi, the district headquarters. But the police could not take any action against the assaulters as the case was hushed up following the pressure from various political parties.
Related story
Even local representatives not spared of caste-based discrimina...
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
