Around 1,200 Dalits at Garagaparru village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh will initiate an indefinite fast from Tuesday. They will protest against social boycott by the upper caste in their village. About 360 families from Mala community, a predominant Scheduled Caste group in Andhra, have been facing social boycott since 26 April.
The development happened after a dispute with the upper caste Rajus (belonging to Kshatriya community) over the installation of a statue of BR Ambedkar in the village on 23 April. “For the past three months, we have been deprived of our livelihood. We have been barred from doing any agricultural work. We are also not allowed to work in the ponds belonging to the people from the upper caste,” G Rajesh, a Dalit youth said, reported Hindustan Times.
Rajesh has been spearheading the movement against the social boycott. “Some of the Dalit farmers, who had taken lands of upper caste people on lease for cultivation, were also driven away and their leases were canceled. Our womenfolk, who used to work in their houses, have been sacked. After the social boycott came to light in the local media, all that the district administration did was distribute some rice and other provisions to the Dalit colony,” Rajesh added.
“We want two acres for each Dalit family so that we can live with dignity, rather than depending on the mercy of the upper caste people. We also want that each family be given a monetary compensation of ₹1 lakh each and that our colony be declared a separate gram panchayat,” he states.
