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Caste Tentacles in Urban Ghettoes in Rajasthan

Bina and her baby Sita survived an attack from the upper-cast group Jats Photo: Sumit Dayal

Kiron ki Dhani at Mohana Mandi is an urban slum of Dalit migrants located on the outskirts of Jaipur city, Rajasthan. There are close to 1.000 shanties in this slum surrounded on all sides by houses and fields belonging to the stick-wielding upper caste Jats.

Violence erupted here 11 months ago, when the Jats attacked the slum-dwellers. Armed with sticks, bats and batons they destroyed homes, damaged bikes, beat up innocent Dalits, and even attacked women and children.

In the shadows

It is with considerable alacrity that Heeralal recounts what happened the day that the mob ran amok. His house, which was the first in the line, got destroyed in the onslaught, but he managed to raise an alarm and warn the others.

So many months after the incident Heeralal is still a target. He lives in shadows and is always in hiding, finding new routes to go to work. He doesn’t step out of his home after sun-set fearing for his life.

Miracle to be alive

Bina was beaten black and blue only eight days after she delivered a baby. Her week old daughter Sita was not spared either. It is a miracle that they are both alive today.

She points at Monica, a 2-year-old girl, who was beaten up with an iron rod and broke both her arms, and Pooja, another child, who received severe head injuries in the attack.

Every day violence

Gyarsi Devi dares to speak up about the injustice in her community Photo: Sumit Dayal

Yet the oppression and violence faced by the Dalits here hasn’t beaten them. It has in fact been a trigger for their collective strength.

To fight for their rights, these men and women have filed several cases under the SC/ST Atrocities Act with the help of Centre for Dalit Rights (CDR), DCA’s partner in Rajasthan.

Sitting together - huddled but fearless - the women speak of the violence they have to endure every single day.

“We can’t walk on the road after 8 p.m. because we may be mauled. We can’t go to the toilet because they have blocked our access to the forest and fields. When we walk, they scream: M************! How dare you compare with us? What dignity do you have? “says Gyarsi Devi.

Jats wanted them to come

Most of the people here are daily wage labourers and construction workers. Quite recently many of them have found work in the vegetable wholesale market that has come up close by.

The older ones recall that 15 years ago they came to settle here paying small sums of money to the upper caste Jats and build their shanties on government land.

In fact the Jats were the ones who brought them to settle there and do menial work for them in the first place. Now, with the construction of the new market, land prices in the area have gone up and the upper caste Jats want to grab the land.

Fight for dignity

Satyanarayan is the leader of the community and motivates people to fight for their dignity Photo: Sumit Dayal

“The last five years have been painful and the violence unbearable. Three years ago they broke down all our houses. We still don’t have access to clean water and if a water tanker is sent, it is not allowed to reach us", says Satyanarayan, leader of the community.

Satyanarayan has relentless and tirelessly motivated the people here to fight for their dignity.

“Our women can’t go to the fields or the forest, and the Jats deliberately release all their dirty water into our area,” he says.

Need for other fights too

He continues to tell about the situation:
“To them, we are nothing! We have no identity and certainly no dignity. So when we speak out they get angry and attack us. But we will fight back. We will fight this war”.

But it is also important for the dalits to fight other battles, he says.

“It is important that our children get proper nutrition and education. We need clean water and a safe environment and we will work towards all of this. For this purpose we registered a charitable society - The Dalit and Environment Seva Samiti - in 2008, through which we will attempt to bring development into our slum.”

Five minutes after this interview there is news of a fresh attack: a Dalit man had been stabbed by a youth on a motorbike just as we left.

By Priyanka Mukherjee Mittal,
Regional Information and Documentation Officer, DanChurch Aid, India