Diktats, boycotts and the fight for rights
For over two years, 45 toddy-tapper and 10 Dalit families in Nizamabad’s Tallarampur have allegedly faced a complete social boycott for defying their Village Development Committee’s (VDC) orders. The growing clout of VDCs and nearly 90 complaints of alleged excesses before the Backward Classes Commission bring the larger issue into focus, as Ravi Reddy finds during a ground visit
Residents of different villages at a public hearing held by Telangana State Commission for Backward Classes, in Nizamabad last month. Nearly 90 complaints concerning alleged excesses by village development committees were put forth.
On a sunny afternoon last year, 40-year-old Kairi Kalyani dressed in her festive best and stepped out of her home with a plate of offerings, including turmeric, kumkum, flowers, coconuts and fruits. It was Sri Rama Navami, and Kalyani, along with a dozen other women from her neighbourhood in Tallarampur village of Nizamabad district, arrived at the local Ramalayam to perform kumkumarchana.
But what was meant to be a day of prayer and celebration quickly turned into an experience of humiliation. Just as the women settled among the other devotees, the temple priest allegedly asked them to leave. The reason? They belonged to the Goud (toddy-tapper) community and were not permitted to perform rituals at the temple!
Telangana / Spotlight / police / crime / crime, law and justice / criminal
- diktats
- boycotts
- fight
- vdc
- right
- toddy
- tapper
- family
