It is
well known that daliths have to stick to their time honored professions
like cleaning toilets, repairing clogged drains, skinning dead cows
and such tasks which the Manuvadis have assigned to them. In these tasks
there is 100% reservation for the daliths, which no Manuvadi
questions or takes to the streets. It is only when there is reservation
for the scheduled castes in education or employment that the upper castes
start talking about merit, equality etc. When daliths strive to rise
in life and go away from the tasks assigned by Manu and his followers,
they raise the hackles of the forward castes who shall strive in every
way to stop them. In the Northern and central parts of India it leads
to murder, rape and such mayhem. But, in parts of Karnataka like ours,
the methods are more subtle!
This the
story of the struggle of one such family in which the father is a coolie
born in Tamilnadu. Kaliappan, a native of Rayagiri village, Shivagiri
taluk, Tirunelveli district of Tamilandu is a
Pallan by birth. In 1975 draught forced him to migrate to Karnataka
and he came down to Joida in Karwar district to work as a labourer.
There he fell in love with Jana Bai who belonged to a Marathi Naik family
and married her thereafter in 1981. Then circumstances forced him to
send his wife to his home at Tamilnadu where she delivered a girl in
1984. The mother and child were there for a few years after which the
whole family settled came down to Suratkal, Mangalore taluk. Kaliappan
started working as a collie and Jana Bai attempted to earn a living
by selling clothes on installment basis to her friends and neighbours.
Their daughter, Nageshwari studied 1991 to 2000 in local schools near
home and then came to Mangalore to study at Canara Junior College, Mangalore.
She did reasonably well in her studies and appeared for C.E.T in 2002
and got a rank which would ensure her a free medical seat. In order
to avail the seat, a caste certificate was needed. Her troubles started
when she went for that caste certificate. The Tahsildar refused to give
her one. Her mother and she tried for that again and again but
every time they were refused. So, she approached us with her problem.
That was the time when S.M.Krishna the chief minister, was fascinated
with e-governance. So, when I sent him an email explaining the predicament
of this girl, the reply and action were immediate. He ordered the Deputy
Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada to ensure that the girl would get her
caste certificate immediately. This order was conveyed to the Tahsildar
who had to obey.
Nageshwari
obtained a MBBS seat at the Medical College, Chitradurga and joined
for studies. Within a few months the Civil rights enforcement Police
came searching for her. Their contention was that Additional D.G.P.
of Police had received a complaint about her and they had come to investigate.
That complaint by one Narayana Poojary, no.228:B, 4th cross, Katipalla, Suratkal was that
she had obtained a false caste certificate by bribing the officials
at the Taluk office and she was actually not a scheduled
caste candidate. The investigations were supposed to be going on and
she produced all the required documents. Each and every time when she
and her mother asked the department about the status of the enquiry
they were given vague answers. However, her education continued.
In 2005
her brother Dileep Kumar completed his 12th standard and appeared for the competitive
examinations. He had a good chance of getting admissions into NIITK,
Suratkal under the quota. But, when they approached the Tahasildar of
Mangalore Taluk for the caste certificate, they were stone walled. It
was the contention of this official that pending report of the enquiry
about the elder sister, he would not issue a caste certificate. So,
Kaliappan produced a caste certificate from the office of Tahasildar
from the place were he was born. That certificate was accepted by the
authorities and Dileep Kumar got a seat at NIITK, Suratkal.
In the
meanwhile, Nageshwari was pursuing her medical course at Chitradurga
and completed her final MBBS. In 2007 June, Dileep Kumar was asked by
the authorities of NITK to produce a caste certificate from the Tahasildar
of Mangalore Taluk. When he asked them for a direction in writing it
was refused. He was told to approach the department of social welfare
for that. When they went to that office the same was repeated, but they
were not willing to go on record about that. At this juncture the family
managed to get a copy of the investigation report about the complaint
about Nageshwari. That report had been submitted in 2003 April and had exonerated her of
any wrongdoing.
In fact the
report was very supportive of her and her attempts to study in the face of great
odds.
The report
submitted by the investigating officer Narayana Maniyani cited 9 documents
as supportive evidence that Nageshwari’s father Kaliappan belonged
to a scheduled caste called Pallan. It was at no.86 in Karnataka and
no.49 in Tamilnadu. So, in either of states it would enable her to claim
reservation under that category. It was also found that the complainant
Narayana Poojary was not a physical entity as there was no such address
or any one by that name. So, the whole complaint was a fabricated one
just to harass this girl.
In the
words of the investigating officer- a false complaint has been lodged
in the name of Naryana Poojary out of jealousy that a coolie’s daughter
has obtained a seat for the medical course after duly qualifying in
an examination conducted by a duly authorized government agency. He
also added that the whole process was made with the malafide intentions
of causing tension to her and vitiating her mindset for studies. It
was also his contention that one should be proud that the daughter of
an illiterate scheduled caste born coolie has managed to join a course
which would make her a doctor. He also added that the enquiry should
be dropped and it should be declared that she is a scheduled caste candidate.
Though Nageshwari has completed her MBBS and it is only a matter of time before
she qualifies to be a doctor, fate of her brother still hangs in balance.
He has applied for a scheduled caste certificate from the Tahasildar
of Mangalore and has submitted all documents including the enquiry report,
the non availability of which was purportedly tying the hands of this
functionary.
After
this Kaliappan and Jana Bai may have to go through the whole trial for
the sake of their third child! It is very strange that children born
to the same set of parents have to struggle so much for proving their
caste. It seems to be a typical case of a dalith struggling for justice.
Most of the time we are told by the Manuvadis that daliths have no brains,
they are not suited for academic pursuits etc. Even when they are proved
to be suitable these status quoists would go to any lengths to see that
the daliths are denied their rightful dues. The votaries of so called
merit should realize that more injustice is done in the name of capitation
fee than caste based reservations. While those who shout from the roof
tops about standards going down due to reservations for the downtrodden
castes, do not utter a whimper when students of far lesser “merit”
get seats in professional colleges just because their parents can purchase
them- the seats I mean- by paying huge sums to the owners of the teaching
shops masquerading under the names of educational institutions some
of which have become deemed universities!
It is
also a tragedy that the whole establishment has acted hand in glove
with these jealous manuvadis to trouble a dalith family. Even when a
scholarship or any other facilities are accorded to the daliths the
sanctioning authorities behave as if they are handing over them from
their personal property. This is the sad state of affairs in the 60th
year of independence of Mera Bharath Mahan!
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