Seven weeks after the gang-rape of four Dalit girls of Bhagana village in Haryana’s Hisar district, allegedly by upper caste men, the victims and their families will protest at Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s residence in the Capital on Sunday. While five of the accused have been arrested, the protesters – who have been on dharna at Jantar Mantar since April 16 – claim that neither the State nor the Centre has worked to end the continuous violence and social boycott of Dalits for the last two years.
Veermati Devi, mother of one of the victims, said she will ask Mr. Hooda to rehabilitate them as land-owning Jats have made their existence in the village impossible. “They’ve already destroyed their (the victims’) lives. They prevent us from working and throw bricks into our homes. They attack us if we go near any well to fetch water. Even their (Jat) women make obscene remarks on our girls. It is their (Jat) government. Send us somewhere else so we can live in peace,” she told The Hindu .
She demanded that sarpanch Rakesh Kumar and his uncle Virendra also be taken into custody, for allegedly instigating the defendants to rape the girls. “As long as they are free, they won’t let us live,” she claimed.
All the girls are minors; the youngest is 13. Two of them had dropped out of school due to taunts by youth of the dominant agrarian caste in the village, activist Sumedha Boudh said. Most literate Dalits of Bhagana leave the village to look for work in cities.
The gang-rapes are the latest aggression in the social boycott imposed by khap panchayats on Dalits after the latter collected money to buy public land in 2012. Most of their caste brethren, said the protesters, are bonded or landless labourers and the attempt to buy land was seen as a way out of slave labour.
The boycott – which includes denial of service at shops and access to grazing pastures and playgrounds, destruction of property and, targeted harassment of women – was imposed by khap leaders who benefit from the status quo. Dalits of the village have faced boycotts in 2000 and 2007, but these never lasted for more than a fortnight.
“The situation has worsened during the Hooda regime (since 2005) and after the movement for declaring Jats as backward castes strengthened,” said Satveer – a Dalit elder. “Unless we are given economic strength, it (violence) will continue. The Jats even prevented the collector from entering the village. We have approached all elected representatives and government bodies, including the CM, the Governor and the PM but we haven’t got justice. Even our protest in Hisar was prohibited.”
Unfortunately for the protesters, no politician and party has approached them. While far-left organisations and students in the Capital protested in front of Haryana Bhawan last month, the sit-in at Jantar Mantar here has been a damp squib.
“The activists have caused more harm to us than the Jats. Several Hisar-based activists took up our cause but either abandoned us or misled us in court. Their actions deteriorated relations with the Jats further without getting us justice. Parties like the BSP participated in our dharnas but do not protect us from harassment,” said local leader Virendra Bagoria.
“There is no hope for peace. All we are asking for is justice and rehabilitation,” he added.
