Dalits lament social boycott by upper caste group at Nallampatti

Seek justice:Dalit residents of Rice Mill Pudur locality in Thingalur limits at the collectorate to submit a petition complaining social boycott by upper caste communities in Erode, on Monday. —PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

Dalit residents of Rice Mill Pudur locality at Nallampatti submitted a petition to the District Collector S. Prabakar on Monday stating that they were facing a social boycott by upper caste people due to which they had lost the means for economic sustenance.

Several families belonging to the Arundathiyar sect of Dalit community led by a resident K. Senthamizhan urged the official machinery to respond appropriately to a recent resolution adopted by the upper caste in the village not to engage the Dalit people in farm work or other jobs.

The relations between the two communities turned sour after a Dalit labourer Chinnasamy was found dead in a well belonging to an upper caste person last month.

The Dalit residents suspected that Chinnasamy was murdered by upper caste people and that the police department and district administration was not doing enough to punish the culprits.

The death lead to a furore and the relatives of the deceased accepted the body only after a re-post-mortem examination.

While the first autopsy was suggestive of suicide, the re-post-mortem examination report indicated murder, according to the victim’s relatives. They urged the district administration to arrange for Rs. 5 lakh interest-free loan, with subsidy component, for each of the 120 families, for their economic sustenance.

Delay

Any delay on the part of the district administration to step in and do the needful will result in the residents of Rice Mill Pudur colony moving en masse and camping indefinitely on the district collectorate premises, a representative of the Dalit community cautioned.