[Reader-list] Urban Rules of Untouchability

[SUNDARA BABU]

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Karthik Navayan <navayan at gmail.com> wrote:


> Urban rules of untouchability<http://www.mediavoicemag.com/home-mainmenu-1/cover-story/3820-urban-rules-of-untouchability.html>



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> 03 November 2010



>   There is a polite silence around exclusion based on caste that happens
> in the cities. We trace the unstated rules through which it operates
>
>
> By nisary mahesh and Asha menon
>
> This is an exercise in mapping silence. In the cities, there is an unstated
> code that keeps some people apart. It is not polite to voice it, because the
> urbane believe  themselves to be liberal and free of traditional biases.
>
>
> However, untouchability — any form of exclusion based on caste — is
> prevalent in the cities. We trace the  rules through which it operates by
> talking to people who are at the receiving end — the ‘untouchables’ of urban
> India.
>
> *Rule 1*
>
> *A good place to start is the capital city. Here, your house broker will
> mysteriously become too busy for you if you are a Dalit.*
>
> When Anoop Kumar was in his late twenties, he went house hunting with this
> friend. “We went to Gautam Nagar through a broker. The assistant of the
> broker showed  me the place and we liked it. When we began negotiating for
> the rent, the broker asked us our caste. I said I am a Dalit and immediately
> there was a change of tone. The broker said that he needs to reconsider it,
> that he will need to talk to the landlord, that they nearly fixed another
> tenant. Later we found that it  was the broker’s younger brother’s flat. We
> fought with him over it, but we still did not get the house.”
>
> *Rule 2*
>
> *While looking for a house, be prepared for questions on your caste.
>
> * Anila Jagdish and her two friends were looking for a house in the heart
> of Kochi, Kaloor. There were the usual questions posed to single women and
> then, came the direct question: "What is your caste?". "I did think it was
> odd, but we had to name our castes like the whole thing was not awkward or
> nothing out of the ordinary." Anoop has been living in Delhi for the past
> ten years and he now notices subtler ways in which landlords probe to find
> out his caste. "They ask me my full name, assess my ability to speak English
> and then the most familiar question would be about my eating habits —
> vegeterian or non-vegetarian." Geeta Menon, of Bengaluru based Stree Jagruti
> Samiti which works with unorganised workers, says, "Many non-Brahmin people
> have spoken to us about difficulty in getting a house on revealing their
> caste."
>
> *Rule 3*
>
> *Neighbourhoods can be very choosy.
>
> * In Kochi, land-holdings of Scheduled Castes are bought by real estate
> companies. In these neighbourhoods, anyone who refuses to part with their
> small land-holding are not welcome to stay as a 'sore sight'. Balan, who
> belongs to the Pulaya community, was asked to vacate his plot by a real
> estate tycoon who had purchased the surrounding plots for a mega project.
> Balan refused and today, he is being harassed for that. "The drainage water
> from the project is being pumped to my plot," he says. There is a legal
> dispute, but Balan has little hope. "They can easily with their money
> power."
>
> *Rule 4*
>
> *Common pathways are not open to all.
>
> * Several instances have been pointed out in Kochi where Scheduled Caste
> people are forbidden from sharing pathways with upper castes. Umesan, a
> member of Vela community residing in Ernakulam says how his family was
> denied the use of a pathway through an upper-caste person's plot. "I had
> acquired rights for use of the pathway, since my plot has no access to the
> main road. But recently a person from an upper caste purchased the plot
> through which the pathway runs and he blocked the way." The matter was taken
> to court with the help of Dalit Service Society and the court ruled in
> Umesan's favour.
>
> *Rule 5*
>
> *It is best not to assert your Dalit identity.
>
> * Anoop is a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, an institute
> generally known for its liberal politics. He joined the college for post
> graduate studies in International Politics. During a session on reservation
> policy in India, majority of the upper caste students said it was wrong.
> "Angry at their stance, I stood up and shared my experience of being Dalit."
> Shockingly, Anoop was punished for it. "The next two years, none of the
> upper caste students spoke to me. If you speak about caste, you are
> immediately seen as a cadre of Mayawati's party. It leads to hatred." In
> Kochi, Girija talks about the threats she received and the harassment she
> had to face from teachers at her law college for organising Dalit students
> to avail government grants. "I was quite good at studies, but they
> manipulated the internal assessment to punish me. I had to seek the help of
> Dalit Federations for justice."
>
> *Rule 6*
>
> *There are separate benches for different castes, even in reputed
> educational institutes.
>
> * On November 5, Bandi Anusha (student of a prestigous college in
> Hyderabad) grew tired of being kept apart. Says her father. "She was made to
> sit alone at the front bench after her friends came to know of her Scheduled
> Caste status," he says. Anusha decided to put an end to it and she was
> convinced that the only way out of this was to kill herself. Allegedly, she
> announced her intention to her classmates and nobody stopped her. She
> stepped out and messaged her father "bye dad im gng to die."
>
> *Rule 7*
>
> *City planning officials will have no qualms about exploiting the caste
> divide in slums, often to the detriment of backward castes.
>
> * In Chennai's Nochikuppam, Perumal's was one of the many families that
> sought relief after tsunami. But he, like the other Dalits in the fishing
> hamlet, realised that they would not be given a house by the sea (within
> city limits) since they were classified as "NF" (non-fishing) in government
> records. Dalits like many other backward communities in the hamlet were
> employed in activities that surround fishing — like cleaning the boats,
> selling fish, mending nets etc. They infact formed a majority in the hamlet.
> "To reduce the cost incurred to the government, the officials said that we
> would get it in the outskirts," says Perumal. "And they told the ooru
> (hamlet) leaders to campaign for that and not bother about us." The leaders
> were easily convinced, since they themselves were vulnerable to eviction
> from the city if they did not cooperate with the babudom.
>
> *Rule 8*
>
> *You may not be good enough to sit next to foreign clients or for a flight
> ticket.
>
> * Rajen Dev came to Hyderabad to work for a prestigious IT firm. Over the
> years, he has noticed that he is not being treated on par with his peers.
> Sometimes it is the smaller things. "It is difficult for me to my flight
> expenses cleared. I will need to follow the official procedure, while my
> upper-caste colleagues get it cleared informally." Then, there is the client
> visit during which Rajen is not encouraged to mingle with them. "They invite
> me but never seat me next to them. It could be for want of command over
> English language." But Rajen fears there are larger implications. "I've been
> denied a promotion for the past four years though I've been the best
> performer. I sat with my seniors to discuss a development plan if the
> problem was with my work. But no one seemed interested."
>
> That an urban corporate would be discriminatory based on caste should not
> come as a surprise. In 2007, S Madheswaran and Paul Attewell had written in
> Caste Discrimination in the Indian Urban Labour Market (for Economic and
> Political Weekly), based on evidence gathered from National Sample Survey,
> that "Discrimination (against SC/ST employees) seems to be much more
> resilient in the private than in the public sector…"
>
> *Rule 9*
>
> *The definition of 'merit' at work will not be inclusive.
>
> * "Merit in private sector is often defined in terms of what a person
> scores in an English-based, written exam," says Venkat of Madras Institute
> of Development Studies. Break it down and the skills required – proficiency
> in English – are not often accessible to backward castes. In 2007, when
> Surinder S Jodhka and Katherine Newman wrote a paper based on interviews
> with 25 human resource managers in large firms in New Delhi and National
> Capital region, they found that the cultural capital expected from employees
> – like "worldly, sophisticated and well educated" – is not accessible to
> members of SCs. Mr.R Prakash, Director, Institute for Dalit Development and
> Studies, Kerala is also the Superintendent in the Department of Industries.
> "There have been many instances in offices where people refuse to address
> Dalits with respectable terms like 'sir'," he says. "Even the office boys
> refer to Scheduled Caste officers as 'special quota', which means he has not
> come to the position due to his merit.
>
> *Rule 10*
>
> *You can be under tremendous pressure to perform, to prove yourself worthy
> of the 'benefits' given by the government.
>
> * When Amaravathi, a national- level Dalit woman boxer from Hyderabad,
> consumed poison, her family members blamed her coach. "She used to tell us
> that her coach would frequently scold her to achieve results or leave the
> sports hostel (of Andhra Pradesh) since she was enjoying free amenities
> there (referring to the facilities given to SC/St students)," they said.
>
> *Rule 11*
>
> *Domestic help cannot use the same toilets or same water filters.
>
> * "In some households, localities in Bengaluru, the women who clean the
> house and the toilets are not allowed to use the toilets not drink water
> from the filters," says Geeta.
>
> *Rule 12*
>
> *Even the Gods will discriminate
>
> * "Neither churches nor the temples have not taken any steps to include
> the Scheduled Castes in their leaderships," points out Mr. P K
> Santhoshkumar, Secretary, Dalit Service Society, Kochi. 'The Kerala Temples
> Devaswom Bill' was passed in 2008, to include the Dalits in devaswoms. "But
> not one has been included even as committee members nor have they come
> forward, since they are not confident how they will be accepted in the
> 'Nair' dominated temple devaswoms."
>
> *Rule 13*
>
> *Pooja rooms are a no-enter zone for domestic help.
>
> * In a posh locality in Chennai, a senior lawyer Veena was chided by her
> neighbour. Reason? For letting her domestic help clean her pooja utensils.
> "I calmly told her to wash them herself, if she has a problem with my
> domestic help washing them," says Veena. The neighbour has not spoken to her
> since then. It is common even in Bengaluru, says Geeta. "They are not
> allowed into the pooja rooms or touch some vessels. Even after they wash the
> clothes and vessels, water is sprinkled on the same." On a lighter note, she
> adds, "Ironically, how pure is the corporation water that is sprinkled?"
>
> *Rule 15*
>
> *We are all friends till dinnertime.
>
> * Whenever lawyer Priyanka goes to her friend and Delhi-based senior
> journalist Maya Fernandes' house, she does not stay for dinner. Says Maya,
> "Priyanka is a Brahmin and she is not comfortable with having food in my
> house because I cook nonvegetarian food. She usually calls up and asks me to
> finish my dinner and wait up for her or leaves just before dinner. One day,
> when she did come early and had to wait for someone else at my house, she
> bought a packet of chips." It has definitely affected their relationship and
> Maya is not sure, if she can ever be a good friend to Priyanka.
>
> *Rule 16*
>
> *Humour is often used to sugar-coat offensive statements and behaviour.
>
> * In a Kochi-based editing firm, Anila has to suffer another colleague's
> playful attempts at dividing the staff into different caste groups. "She
> counts the Nairs in the room by asking them to raise their hands. Then, she
> pitches Nairs against non-Nairs in debates. It is all done as a joke, so how
> do we argue? Most people join in so that they don't appear touchy or
> oversensitive." One day, this colleague proudly announced in the office that
> the Brahmin receptionist liked her the moment he saw her because of her fair
> skin. Abraham Ninan remembers an incident that happened in one of the
> leading IT firms in Chennai. He was there to take classes in effective
> communication and on day one he could spot the class clown. "The minute I
> asked him any question, the whole class would start giggling. I realised
> that he spoke in halting English. According to them, he clearly did not
> belong." He lacked in cultural capital.
>
>
>
>