Dalits remain stigmatised

One year after embarking on a social transformation in a state where Dalits are still considered untouchables, Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has finally admitted he has failed.

This is a region where Dalits are still served from different cups in village restaurants. They are not allowed entry into temples.

Naidu, in an effort to unshackle them of this stigma led a group of Dalits into the Laxmi Bhavani temple in Peddareddypet village of Medak district, hoping that he would help them cross the rubicon in a manner of speaking.

For ten days, his government tried its hand at social transformation and Naidu even announced that starting with himself he would encourage the dropping of surnames, the giveaway suffix that slots anyone in terms of caste.

Now, a year later, Naidu is very much part of his name and what's more his government, within a few days of his grandiose announcement, backed off saying it would be legally difficult to implement it, that there would be all kinds of bureaucratic hurdles and in any case all the chief minister had done was merely make a suggestion.

So did this empowerment frenzy have an impact? Create ripples that would slowly turn the tide in favour of reformation?

No, nothing has changed for the Dalits says the Committee Against Caste Discrimination (CACD), which recently concluded a study. According to the study almost every temple that the Dalits entered last year have since been "cleansed" and whitewashed and Dalits are not allowed back in at least 110 of them.

Not only that, caste Hindus, who watched in frustration as politicians led Dalits into temples, have sought revenge by foisting false cases against the Dalits with plenty of help from police and revenue officials.

They – employing labour to undertake government contracts is their domain – have also seen to it that these Dalits have not been given work under the Food for Work programme forcing many of them to migrate to other villages in search of work.

The survey also revealed that Dalits were not allowed to share the same bus shelters with upper castes in 226 villages, not given a haircut by local barbers in 76 villages and not allowed to cremate their dead on village land in 74 villages and denied access to drinking water wells and taps in 34 villages.

The survey findings are now being sent to the National Human Rights Commission and the National Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes panel.