BELLARY, Aug 27: A Dalit woman was paraded naked by members of a Scheduled
Tribe on Sunday night at Vanenur village in Bellary district. Seven of the eight
people involved in the incident have been arrested. They were produced before a
court and later released on bail.
About a month ago, a girl from the Valmiki community had eloped with a boy
belonging to the ST community. Holding the woman responsible for the incident,
some men of the Valmiki community barged into the house of the victim, dragged
her out and paraded her naked in the village. When the victim's husband and
daughter came to her rescue, they were beaten up mercilessly.
The victim told Deccan Herald: "I was wrongly accused. I have nothing to do
with the elopement of the girl. When I was humiliated, none of the villagers
came to my rescue. They were standing as mute spectators. Only after my
brother-in-law contacted the police did the police come to the spot," she
said.
Among the eight accused, three are women. They are Honnurappa Tandhe Rudraiah,
Hondrappa Tandhe Kodadkaiah, Venkatesh Tandhe Bheemalingappa, Shivappa,
Eshwarappa, Chandramma, Parvathamma and Shivalingamma. Additional Director
General of Police (Law and Order) M D Singh said cases of rioting, outraging the
modesty of woman and hurting had been booked against the eight. He said they
would be arrested again as one more assault complaint had been filed against
them by the victim's brother.
SP K V Sharath Chandra said necessary protection had been provided to the victim
and a strong contingent of policemen posted in the village. Several Dalit
organisations in the district have demanded an impartial probe into the
incident. Dalit leader D Yarriswami who visited the village this morning with
the office-bearers of Dalit Sangharsha Samithi demanded suitable protection to
Dalits and an impartial probe to identify the elements behind the incident.
Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug28/idalit.htm
Referred by: Benjamin P Kaila
Published on: 28 - August - 2001
N. Bhanutej/Bellary
Yeramma lies on her hospital bed writhing in pain. But the physical abuse she
suffered at the hands of five men and three women on August 26 is nothing
compared to the scars on her mind. Every now and then she groans and shuts her
eyes as if to hold back memories of the way she was stripped, beaten, spat upon
and paraded naked for two hours through the dusty streets of Vanenur village in
Bellary district, north Karnataka.
"Look at her properly," yelled her drunken tormentors, who belonged to
the rich Valmiki caste (a scheduled tribe). "You may never see this
again." Each time Yeramma tried to cover herself, they would kick and cane
her hands. Her husband Yenappa, who belongs to the "lowest of the low"
Dasara case (scheduled caste), was forced to follow his wife in silence.
Yeramma's fault-one which she denies-was encouraging a Valmiki girl to elope
with a Dasara boy. "They kicked me, stamped my face and my stomach,"
recalled Yeramma, who is in her early forties. "I begged the three women to
spare me; told them I was a woman like them."
When Yeramma's daughter Honamma, mother of a one-month-old baby, tore off a part
of her tattered sari and tried to cover her mother, one of the drunken men
kicked her so hard that she fell into a pile of garbage.
Yeramma was then told to stand beside the flag post at the Gram Panchayat office
for half an hour, and forced to plead guilty. "Now, you can give her the
clothes," someone said, at which Yenappa took off his lungi and covered his
wife.
Yenappa's brother Vanrappa had, meanwhile, slunk off to neighbouring Banapura to
call the police. They arrested the eight main accused. But less than a day
later, they were out on bail from the Bellary judicial magistrate. When Dalit
and women's organisations protested, the police took them and 12 other Valmikis
and produced them before the taluk magistrate, who remanded them to judicial
custody till September 12.
Nobody can tell how Yeramma's name came to be associated with the eloping, a
month ago, of Keshanna, 20 and Maremma, 15. The girl's parents-who are now in
custody-traced Maremma out on August 24, and immediately began blaming Yeramma
for the 'kidnap'.
"I was not even in the village when that happened," said Yeramma, who
was at her daughter's house in Gullem village in Andhra Pradesh. For a week, men
from the Valmiki community harassed Yeramma, asking her to appear before the
gram panchayat and admit her "guilt". Yeramma insisted she was
innocent. On August 26, when news reached that "they are coming for
you", Yenappa suggested that they leave the village for some time, but
Yeramma said: "Why should we go. I have done nothing wrong."
Attacks on Dalits in Bellary district have been touching new highs. In
2000-2001, there were over 120 cases of atrocities. More than 50 per cent of
these were committed by the Valmikis, the landed gentry in these parts who wield
substantial political and cash clout. As in Yeramma's case, the culprits were
booked under the Prevention of Civil Rights Act, a bailable offence.
"In Karnataka, Valmikis were included in the scheduled tribe category only
six years ago," said D. Yeriswamy, a Dalit leader. "Thus they cannot
be booked under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocity Act. We are now demanding that
they be dropped from the ST category."
Meanwhile, Yeramma's wait for justice has just begun. She has refused the
compensation money, land and house offered to her by state Congress president
Allum Veerabhadrappa, who represents this assembly segment. Hopefully, the Dalit
women and human rights groups in the district, which have formed a joint forum
to fight her case, will help achieve it for her.
Source:http://www.the-week.com/21sep09/events3.htm
Referred by: Benjamin P Kaila
Published on: 3 September, 2001