Ten arrested for harassment in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city
By Sudhir Pedgaonkar for TwoCircles.net,
Aurangabad (Maharashtra): In a progressive state such as Maharashtra, a young couple has claimed facing ostracism for last eight years after their community’s jaat panchayat (community court) directive against their same gotra marriage. Fed up with the social boycott that has hampered their day-to-day life, the wife finally lodged a police complaint leading to arrest of 10 persons this month.
But there is little hope for the couple that their circumstances will change any soon.
Unfolding her plight in the police complaint, Ranjana, 34, has said she belongs to Kanjar Bhaat community (a nomadic tribe). Her husband had deserted her in 2002 after which she was living alone, working at a city permit room to earn her living. She came in contact with Vishal Tamchikar, 37, from Mumbai, who is a labour by occupation. They married in 2004 and have a daughter.
(Courtesy: mentalhelp.net)
The couple’s problem started right after their marriage. Vishal too belongs to the same gotra as that of Ranjana. Kanjar Bhaat community members are found mostly in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Lacking in education over decades mainly due to their nature of being a nomadic tribe, the Kanjar Bhaat males now largely engage into labor work while females work in hotels and bars. The community is slowly turning towards education but has a long way to go for leading a good life.
As a legacy of centuries old practice, the Kanjar Bhaat community is still governed by their own Jaat Panchayat – a community level forum which takes decision for all kinds of disputes between members (akin to Khaaps in north India, especially in Haryana). Ranjana and Vishal’s marriage attracted the ire of the Jaat Panchayat as the elders were against wedding of two people of same gotra. The couple was apparently repeatedly told to get separated as their marriage was against rules of their Jaat Panchayat but the couple defied the diktat.
Left with no choice, the 11-members Jaat Panchayat imposed ostracism on the couple as well as other members of the two families in 2006. “We were neither allowed to meet anybody, nor any other member of our community was allowed to meet us,” Ranjana said in her complaint. Neither any of the community members invited Tamchikars for their social and cultural functions, nor was any one allowed to establish any relationship with Tamchikars by way of marriage.
“Thus, 12 members of our clan were totally boycotted since then. Even my brother and sister are unmarried owing to the ostracism imposed by the Jaat Panchayat,” Ranjana told TwoCircles.net.
One of her brother is 30 plus but unable to find a bride for himself. The members of the Panchayat broke his marriage twice when they came to know about it. The couple’s seven-year-old daughter too is forced to pay a cost for the boycott as no child from the community comes to play with her. No one from their community attended the funerals of Tamchikars who expired since the boycott started, Ranjana added.
Since 2008, six meetings of the Jaat Panchayat were held at different places in Maharashtra and their issue was raised every time. “Fine was recovered from us every time for flouting the community’s norms and we were told to snap the conjugal ties,” she said, adding, “The amount was sometimes Rs 10,000 while sometimes it was Rs 25,000. The Panchayat has thus recovered Rs 1.7 lakh fine amount from us.”
Fed up with constant harassment, she mustered courage to approach the Cidco (MIDC) police station in the city and lodged a complaint against 11 members of the Jaat Panchayat on January 7, 2015 and sought relief from the torture she and her family has been facing during the period.
Inspector Nirmala Pardeshi said a case against 11 office bearers of the Jaat Panchayat has been registered. The list of the accused includes the Kavchand Bhaat (Pune), president of Maharashtra-Karnataka Kanjar Bhaat Jaat Panchayat, its Aurangabad branch office bearers namely Sampat Malke, Ratnu Malke, Sanju Tamchikar, Gokul Malke, Charan Machare, Kaluram Malke, Balbeer Rawalkar, Ramu Indorkar, Majanu Tamchikar and Dharasing Macharekar (all residents of Naregaon, Aurangabad).
Barring the president, all other accused were arrested on January 8 and were held in police custody till January 12. They were later released on conditional bail by the judicial magistrate (FC) concerned. Accordingly, each of them will have to report to the police station on 15th of every month.
But the police case and subsequent arrest has had no effect on the Jaat Panchayat members, or so it seems. Sampat Malke and Sanju Tamchikar flatly denied all the allegations against them and other members of the Jaat Panchayat. “There is nothing like ostracism, we have not ordered nor has there been any recovery of fine,” Malke and Sanju Tamchikar said and pleading innocence, alleged the charges leveled against them by Ranjana were motivated to malign their image in the society.
Perturbed over the duo’s denial, Ranjana said she has suffered mentally, physically and socially beyond words, “why would I tell a lie? They have recovered Rs 1.7 lakh from us, which I have paid from my hard earned money. I was summoned in every meeting of the Panchayat and I have receipts for all the payments I did.”
The police are yet to file any charge sheet in this case.