By Ashfaque EJ, TwoCircles.net
Kozhikode: “It’s been a week after we got beaten and casteist slurs were used against us. The police have failed to identify and arrest the accused. This delay shows that law and justice are turning a blind eye towards Parayas. If the police fail to arrest the accused, we will be organizing an indefinite hunger strike at Meppayur bus stand,” reads a letter written by three Paraya kids in Pulaprakunnu in Meppayur Panchayat in Kozhikode district of Kerala. The incident is the latest example of caste-based violence in Kerala, a state which is hailed as progressive by the rest of the Country.
The incident happened on 27 August at around noon near an aqueduct at Madathumbagam in Meppayur in Calicut.
Three boys, 15-year-old Aadhiseshan, 14-year-old Prajun Kumar, and 15-year-old Arjun were returning from Prajun’s grandmother’s home. A person, later identified as Pradeepan, stopped them near the aqueduct and asked, “Where are you coming from?”
They replied that they are coming from Prajun’s grandma Shailja’s home and went there to collect Prajun’s Onakodi (new clothes for Onam celebration). “He asked Prajun to stay there and ordered both of us to leave. We insisted on Prajun to come with us. He grabbed Arjun’s hand and twisted it,” said Aadhiseshan. Arjun had a previous injury on his hand, which had not completely required.
The boys tried walking away but Pradeepan stopped them and ordered them to take another route. It was then that Pradeepan hit Prajun’s back and hurled casteist slurs. “Polayadi mone (a casteist slur) you will never leave the place if you beat me,” he threatened them.
“Where are you going Paraya bastards, he shouted,” Aadiseshan recalled.
According to Arjun, many ladies were watching this and none of them offered help. Later, Mujeeb, a neighbour came for rescue.
“I requested Pradeepan to leave them. He was drunk. He said that these kids are ganja peddlers and ordered the kids to call their grandma. Pradeepan later allowed them to go after he talked with their grandmother,” Mujeeb told TwoCircles.net.
On the next day, the boys’ parents went to the spot and asked the residents about the issue.
“Most of them replied that they didn’t know about it. Later we met Mujeeb in Meppayur town and he helped us identify the accused,” Aadhiseshan’s father Ratheesh told TwoCircles.net.
The boys went to the Meppayur police station and gave a detailed statement in front of the circle inspector. The police registered FIR no: 382/ 2020 under sections 341, 323, 294(b) and 506 of the Indian Penal Code against the accused. Although the boys are minors and belong to the Paraya caste, Police failed to include the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Mahesh Sashtri, SC/ST monitoring committee Kozhikode district member, told TwoCircles.net that as the boys are from the Sambava/Paraya colony and it’s a known fact that the residents of the colony were being discriminated against, the case should be registered under the SC/ST Act.
“The Atrocities Act was not included initially to weaken the case and to delay the case so that the accused can apply for anticipatory bail,” said Sashtri.
Sashtri and the parents of the boys contacted the Vadakara SP and DySP to add the SC/ST Act in the FIR.
Talking to Dalit Camera, Vadakara DySP Prinze Abraham said that the SC/ ST Act was added in the FIR and he recorded a detailed statement of the boys on Sunday.
The circle inspector of Meppayur refused to comment as the case was under investigation.
According to Ratheesh, the assault is not an isolated incident. Last year his friends were similarly attacked by four people. “They had gone to my friend’s home to help him with his daughter’s marriage. Four people stopped them while going back home. ‘Where are you going, what are you doing here? they asked,” said Ratheesh. The group started attacking his friends. They hit them on their chest, head, and waists. They got admitted to a government hospital in Koyilandy and filed a police complaint. As the Meppayur CI took no action on the complaint filed by his friends, they had moved to the Vadakara rural SP with the complaint. Even if the complaint was filed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the accused got bail easily. Arjun’s mother Praseetha fears that the accused in this case will also get an easy bail.
Praseetha blamed that the delay in the Police investigation was mainly because the complainant was of a lower caste. “If the accused was from our caste, he would be arrested within a day,” Praseetha said. “If they cannot arrest him for at least a day, what is the point of law? How can we believe in a law which will not ensure our safety?” 39-year-old Praseetha shared her angst.
Meanwhile, Ratheesh alleged that Congress activist Ramachandranhad contacted him many times over the telephone asking to compromise “On the next day onwards he started calling me. He told me that the accused was his neighbour and his father works for him. He asked me to compromise on the issue as the accused was an alcoholic,” Ratheesh said.
Pulaprakunnu Paraya or Sambava colony is situated at a hillock in Meppayur town, 35 kilometres away from Kozhikode city. During the 1970s, Andy, a rich landlord in Meppayur handed over 74 cents at Pulaprakunnu to Meppayur Panchayat’s first president Chappan Nair on a condition to convert it as a settlement colony for the homeless from the Paraya caste. In 1992, the then Panchayat President Kelappan master constructed houses worth Rs 35000 to 8 Paraya families living at the colony. At least 11 Paraya families lived in the colony under harsh conditions without basic facilities such as electricity, water, and a secure house. The road leading to the colony was in shambles and people had to walk down at least 150 meters down steep for potable water. As the colony residents don’t have title deeds or property possession certificates, they were unable to claim benefits under government schemes and food rations.
In 2015, the then Calicut district collector came to know about the plights of the residents through social media campaigns. In Aug 2015, the Collector visited the colony and initiated a meeting with officials from Meppayur Panchayat, revenue, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), and colony residents. 13 decisions were taken in the meeting which included the construction of a new water tank, electricity, toilets, street lights, proper roads, concreted houses, title deeds or property possession certificates, education scholarships, and jobs, said Ratheesh, who is also the secretary of the Pulaprakunnu colony.
But, Ratheesh alleged, that the decision remained on papers and none of the decisions were implemented for the next three years, “apart from a 2,000-litre capacity water tank and a street light.”
In January 2019, Dalit rights activists Vineetha Vijayan, Ratheesh Payyoli, and Sheetal Raj visited the colony after they were notified about the colony through a social media post. The group contacted CPI (M) Kerala state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Minister for Excise and Labour TP Ramakrishnan at the Sneha veedu housing project event and briefed them about the colony. The leaders promised the solution and directed the Panchayat president to commence the welfare project on an immediate basis. Kozhikode Collector S Sambasiva Rao, who visited the colony, understood that they were discriminated against based on caste and ordered the construction of houses. “Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Ltd (ULCCS Ltd) got the contract and they finished the construction of at least 5 houses. A total of 8 houses will be constructed by the district authorities and one under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,” Ratheesh said.
He added that the Collector was very helpful and accused Meppayur Panchayat officials of acting as roadblocks. The collector also took the initiative to distribute the property possession certificates for the colony residents. In June 2020, the residents of the colony were shifted to a school following a heavy downpour and landslide alert.
For decades, the residents of Pulaprakunnu have been carrying the burdens of caste-based discrimination. Many people in the colony shared the bitter experience of casteist discrimination and untouchability they faced in public spaces, schools, Panchayat offices, and marriage functions. In marriage functions, people are not ready to dine with them. In public spaces and buses, people always stared at Pulaprakunnu residents. The majority of the people were not ready to share their seats on the bus or to stand behind the Pulaprakunnu residents.
Once, Praseetha and other ladies went to Meppayur town for a Kudumbashree (Kerala government’s women empowerment mission) meeting.
“People were standing in two long queues. The ladies from the colony also joined in the queue. As I stood in the queue, the person who stood in front of me moved to the other line. Most of the outsiders are not ready to stand in the queue with Pularakunnu residents,” Praseetha complained.
The upper caste people had vilified Paraya and instilled fear in the mind of children. As there is water scarcity, the people in the colony are dependent on a pond, which is one kilometre away.
One day, Aadhiseshan and his friends were walking in front of a house on their way back home from the pond. “People from Pulaprakunnu are coming. If you don’t eat food, they will kidnap you,” they overheard a mother saying to her child. This fairytale is being passed from generation to generation. Parayas have replaced the position of demons in the fairytales of Meppayur.
Aadhiseshan narrated an instance of how his brother Abhimanyu was discriminated against by his classmates in 2015. Most of the students are not even ready to sit with Parayas. “Normally, four to five students sit on a school bench. My brother Abhimanyu was made to sit on the corner of the bench and they kept two-three bags next to him. The students always kept a distance from him,” said Aadhiseshan.
Prajun narrated an incident that happened five years ago at Meppayur school which forced him to change his school. “One day students harassed me saying that I stole a hundred and ten rupees from my classmate’s bag. I complained to my father. He came to school and enquired with the teacher. The teacher didn’t take any action and instead, he tried to normalize it. I didn’t feel like going to that school,” Prajun said, adding he was later enrolled at a boarding school at Mathara in Kozhikode.
Ratheesh substantiated the claims by sharing the experience of his friend Ajeesh, a post-graduate from the community. Ajeesh was called names, insulted, and harassed by fellow students. He even stayed at home for a month. But later he fought back and resumed going to school. “If 90 out of 100 students call me Paraya and laugh at me, how can I concentrate on letters and studies? Most of us cannot take this humiliation. Gradually we will stop going to school. They don’t want us to progress in education and to get a good job,” Ratheesh said.
“Earlier people used to make a specific sound to mock us. The sound is to mock the Paraya dialect. Recently, my friends and I were returning home after hard labour. While we were walking, a guy made this sound to mock us. I confronted him and warned that he will face the consequences if he repeated it. ‘Don’t you dare to do it again,’ I said. He became numb. People came to mediate. I said to them that I don’t want anybody to interfere with this. I was mocked based on my caste. You people were mute spectators,” Ratheesh said with angst.
Ratheesh noted that caste-based discrimination has decreased as they have started to question and resist it. “During my youth, I had experienced a lot. But now caste is expressed indirectly. You can read it from their body language,” Ratheesh said. “They will be hesitant to drink and eat from our homes. But in public spaces they will claim that they are progressive and don’t care about caste,” he noted.
Ratheesh is an Ambedkarite and drew his courage from Ambedkar’s teachings. “I encourage my kids to read. They can only understand the atrocities done to us over centuries and learn about the resistance only through reading. In school, we learned Ambedkar as the person who drafted our constitution. But later through books, I realized who Ambedkar was and how he fought the oppression and stood for the dignity of the lower caste,” Ratheesh said. “This fight is not only for my children but to uphold the dignity of all the children from our community,” he added.