[Reader-list] Sexual Assault On Four Girls In Haryana In The Context Of Dalit Rights To Common Land

[Asit Das]

*Sexual Assault On Four Girls In Haryana In The Context Of Dalit Rights To
Common Land*

*A Status Report on Bhagana by AFDR, PUDR and WSS*

01 July, 2014
*Countercurrents.org*

A joint team comprising Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR) from
Punjab , People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and Women against
Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) from Delhi visited Bhagana
village of Hisar district on May 13, 2014 . The main purpose of this visit
was to meet the villagers after the gruesome gang rape incident of the four
Dalit girls earlier on March 23 by five men of the Jat community and to
understand its links with the ongoing struggle that the Dalit community has
been waging since May 2012 for access to common land.

Following the incident of gang rape, 90 families, largely from the Dhanuk
community, came to Delhi and sat on a dharna at Jantar Mantar on April 16,
demanding justice and compensation. Then, on June 4, which also happened to
be the first day of the Parliament session for the newly elected
government, the Delhi police forcibly evicted them from the dharna site
along with other groups sitting at Jantar Mantar. The police used brute
force to drive away the protesters, ostensibly, for ‘security concerns' in
view of the upcoming session of Parliament. Some women activists from Delhi
were also roughed up and were even hit on their private parts by the women
police.

In Bhagana, our team met Dalit residents of the village, the sarpanch and
other men from the Jat community, and the people sitting in protest at the
Mini Secretariat in Hisar. The team visited the offices of the DM and SP in
Hisar and met one of the local lawyers, who has been appearing on behalf of
the Dalits. We also met the survivors and representatives of the Dalit
community sitting at Jantar Mantar in protest.

This is an update on the detailed report brought out by AFDR and PUDR on
Bhagana in 2012 titled, *This Village is Mine Too *.

*Sexual assault on the four girls*



Four young Dalit girls from Bhagana were abducted by five Jat boys from the
same village on the night of March 23, when they had gone out to relieve
themselves. They had been stalking them for quite some time. The girls were
dragged into a car, sedated and gang-raped. Later, they were taken to the
Bhatinda railway station, about 170 kms from Bhagana, and were left there.
One of the girls recollected that though she was aware of being raped by
her abductors, she was in no state to resist because of the effect of the
drugs she was forced to take.

The morning after their disappearance, the girls' families had approached
the sarpanch of the village, Rakesh Panghal. He belongs to one of the most
powerful Jat families of Bhagana, owning around 44 acres of land. Instead
of taking a serious note of it and suggesting filing a complaint for
missing persons with the police, the sarpanch initially tried to laugh it
off and interpreted the incident as a possible case of elopement. When the
families persisted, he finally relented and admitted of knowing the
whereabouts of the girls. On the morning of March 25, he took the parents
and relatives of the girls to the Bhatinda railway station. The girls were
there. The sarpanch accompanied the girls in a car while the relatives were
asked to come by bus. Throughout the journey, the sarpanch kept
intimidating the girls, telling them to forget the incident and warning
them of dire consequences for their families, if they went ahead with
filing a police complaint.

Undeterred by the threats, the girls and their families went ahead and
filed a police complaint on the same night. FIRs were filed on March 25
[FIR no. 299/2014] at the Sadar Police Station and the girls were made to
undergo medical examination to ascertain rape and physical assault. Charges
have also been levelled against the accused under the Protection of
Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POSCO), the Scheduled Caste and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 [Section 3 (1) xi]
and under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) [Sections
363/366/366A/376/120B/328]. Initially, the police was showing reluctance in
filing the case and sending them for medical examination. However, pressure
from the families and local Dalit activists forced the police to file an
FIR and arrange for medical examination of one of the four girls at 11.00
in the night. The police called the other three girls the following day for
medical examination.

One of the victims, an 18-year-old girl, in a complaint filed has alleged
that five youths kidnapped her and her three friends, including two minors,
on March 23 and gang raped them after giving them some drugs. The accused
include two brothers named Sumit and Lalit, and Sandeep who are residents
of Bhagana and two unknown youth from a nearby village. One of the accused
in the incident is the nephew of the sarpanch.

When the team met the sarpanch and other representatives of the Jat
community, they tried to underplay the accusation of rape, maintaining that
it was a clear case of elopement. Others alleged that one of the girls was
having an affair with one of the Jat boys. The sarpanch and his associates
denied that there existed any caste-induced disharmony in the village.
According to him, all the people in the village lived in an atmosphere of
perfect *bhaichara *(harmony) and that it was only a section of people
responsible for creating problems in the village. According to them, they
were doing this to get money from the government.

The accused were arrested on March 29 and April 1. The girls were given a
compensation of Rs 1. 2 lakh each and two of them got an additional Rs 65,
000/ each from the state government.

In our interactions with the people, some women shared openly how these
incidents of sexual violence were not new to the area. Earlier they would
be hushed down but now people are willing to speak about them and even file
cases. This became possible because the community came together to resist
the routine caste violence, injustices and other atrocities, including
sexual violence, being perpetrated by the Jat community.

Some recalled a rape incident that had happened a long time ago. A
12-year-old girl was gang-raped all day long by some members of Jat
community. The victim finally succumbed to the injuries. We were also told
of another rape incident, about six-seven months ago, of the daughter of a
migrant worker from Delhi , working at the local water reservoir. The
father of the girl was badly beaten up, when he protested.

In recent times the sexual attacks on Dalit women have become more frequent
in Haryana. These attacks are intended to show the power of the dominant
castes. Some villagers felt that the immediate provocation for this
incident was the altercation that took place sometime ago between the
father of one of the girls and the sarpanch. The sarpanch had threatened
him that someday he would teach him a lesson.

With so many families having moved out, the fear and insecurity of those
who remain seem to have increased much more. Some women expressed how they
lived with a great deal of fear in even going about their daily chores or
moving around the village. No one dares to go out alone. On the other hand,
the March 23 incident, the subsequent arrests of five Jats and the
complicity of the sarpanch and his uncle have made the Jats harden their
stand, though; they are also scared. To understand the current situation,
we need to have a closer look at the socio-economic relations in the
village itself.

*About Bhagana*

Bhagana village is about three hundred years old. The two significant
communities inhabiting the village are Jats, who form 54%; and Dalits, who
form 24% of the population.

Like any other village in Haryana all Dalits in Bhagana are landless wage
labourers. Their only source of livelihood in the village is working in the
fields of the dominant caste group (Jats), who own most of the land in the
village. The Jats of Bhagana are related to each other and enjoy strong
unity.

Dalits in Bhagana are on the three sides of the village, while Jats and
other upper caste families live in the centre of the village. Chamars and
Dhanuks are the two main Dalit subcastes, who live on two sides; while a
small section of the other Dalit castes, like the Valmiki community, lives
on the farther side of the village.

There are two kinds of crop sharing systems practiced here – *siri *and
*batai *. The Dalits and other backward caste groups take plots on *batai *,
which is a crop-sharing arrangement where the *bataidar *cultivates the
land and the produce is divided between the landowner and the *bataidar *.
After the social boycott, Dalit families are not getting any work in the
village. They travel daily to the nearby villages in search of work.
Migrants also swarm the village to work as agricultural labourers. The
other system of agricultural labour is that of *siri *, whereby the
labourer enters into a bond and he is paid a consolidated amount and for
that period is bound to the landlord to do all kinds of tasks. Although
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is
operational in the block of Bhagana village, only 50 percent of funds seem
to have been officially utilized. The people we spoke to were unaware of
this though mention was made of another government scheme in operation
until some time ago.

It is interesting to note that when the Jats had also started an agitation
a few years back to be included in the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category
so as to avail reservations and other benefits, one of the centres of the *rail
roko *agitation was the Meyer Railway Crossing that is right outside
Bhagana village. According to some of the people we met, their harassment
at the hands of the Jat community has intensified since then.

*On Shamilat deh land*

One of the major contentious issues between Dalits and Jats in Bhagana is
the right to use and access to *shamilat deh *land. *Shamilat deh *refers
to common land belonging to village panchayat. There is an estimated 280
acres of such land in Bhagana, which is practically in the hands of Jat
farmers of the village. Out of this, 60 acres has been distributed among
people through auction, which was organised by the panchayat. As per the
existing legal provisions, it is the responsibility of the panchayat to
distribute the*shamilat deh *land amongst the landless farmers in the
village, including Scheduled and Backward castes. In the panchayat of 14
members, six members belong to Dalit and other castes while the rest are
from the Jat community.

According to the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Haryana Amendment
Act of October 9, 2013 :

*A Panchayat may, gift, sell, exchange or lease the land in Shamilat deh
vested in it under this Act to such persons including members of Scheduled
Castes and Backward classes on such terms and conditions, as may be
prescribed *.

Since this land was already being used by Jats for their personal use or
for planting trees, the situation worsened after this amendment. Hundreds
of trees planted were sold and money was pocketed by the panchayat. The
demand for the distribution of this land was raised by Dalits. One of the
villagers, who is leading the Dalit community in the struggle, alleges that
the village head has grabbed 40-50 acres of common land for his personal
use.

In 2012, around 222 plots of 100 yards each had been carved out. A list was
made by the self-appointed 21-member committee to implement the scheme. An
amount of Rs 1,000/- was collected from each family under the pretext of
allotting plots. According to the sarpanch, 123 plots were allotted to
Dalit families. However, the panchayat chose to withhold the legal
documents instead of handing them over to the allottees. Dalits contend
that the plots allotted to them are the ones that were refused by the upper
caste people as those were part of the cemetery. While carving out plots,
many trees had been felled. We were told that trees were sold at Rs
5000-10,000 each and the money was kept by the panchayat. As of now, the
Dalits have no legal entitlement to the plots they were allotted.

It was only when the Dalits started registering police cases against the
atrocities and social boycott steps taken by the Jats that the panchayat
and the village elders began the process of giving the land. But that
process too had to be suspended as it was being done in illegal manner,
using threat and intimidation.

On March 21, 2014 a case was filed by Dalits for the distribution of *shamilat
deh *land and was dismissed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana.
However, the judgment upheld the distribution of *shamilat deh *land and
stated that it could not intervene as there was a mechanism in place for
approaching the higher authorities for implementation of land distribution.

*On social boycott*

In March 2012, the Jat community under the leadership of Panghal Khap, one
of the many clans of the community which all Jats of the village belong to,
announced a *bandi *– social and economic boycott – on the Dalits of the
village. The boycott was in retaliation of the Dalit protest against the
decision of the panchayat, headed by Rakesh Panghal, to allocate the common
land of the village, including the playground on the outskirts, to members
of the Jat community.

As mentioned in the earlier joint report of AFDR-PUDR, the dominant caste
often used social boycott as an effective instrument to teach a lesson to
questioning Dalits. When there was a conflict between Chamars and Jats over
the issue of the playground and Ambedkar chowk, Jats imposed social boycott
on Chamars. This meant ban on the use of all common resources and services
in the village. Dominant castes stopped employing the Chamars in their
fields and ordered the shopkeepers not to sell goods to them. Over 137
families, largely from the Chamar community, fled Bhagana as a result of
the severe social boycott that was affecting not only their routine daily
activities but also their livelihood. They have been sitting in protest
outside the Mini Secretariat in Hisar for the past two years, demanding
justice. However, the Dhanuks, who are the second largest Dalit community,
decided to stay back in the village. They continue to work for Jats and
other dominant castes. According to the lawyer, representing Dalits in the
social boycott case, fifty families have since returned to the village.

Vijendra, one of the villagers, told us that the remaining Dalit families
were neither allowed to go to the shops in the village nor work in the
fields. One of the young boys of this community told how the *bandi *or
social boycott in their own village over the last two years have aggravated
their hardships and pushed them further to the margins. They are being
neglected and denied access to water. They cannot roam about freely as they
are routinely threatened by Jats. Dalits no longer want to live in the
village and would prefer to settle down somewhere in towns.

Apart from the Dhanuks and a small number of other Dalit communities, there
are migrant workers through whom Jats are getting their agricultural work
done. When the Chamars left the village, the Jats managed to cajole the
Dhanuk community not to go with them. However, as we have seen, even the
Dhanuks have had to face the brunt of the dominant community.

An elderly person who relies on daily wages shared with us how difficult it
has become now as they are having to travel almost 8-10 kms to get some
work for the day.

Many from the Dalit community reiterated the decision to leave the village
as the only solution to their woes. Their earnings have dwindled and in the
face of the situation where they are having to face social boycott and have
no work, they are left with no other choice but to migrate elsewhere. We
need to see the implications of social boycott and how it is a violation of
basic democratic rights of an individual as it affects their right to
livelihood as well as free mobility among many other things.

When once the Dalits complained that despite having been settled in the
village for over a hundred years they have got no land to work on, they
were told by a panchayat member to send their girls to them and they will
have land to till. This is the kind of humiliation they are subjected to on
routine basis. It is true that a girl of any other community in the same
situation too might be equally vulnerable to sexual assault but the
confidence with which the Jat community operates in the village shows their
power and domination over the poor Dalits. Their confidence that they could
terrorise victims of their sexual violence into silence, surely arose not
only from the gendered and patriarchal notion of ‘shame', but also from the
fact that they were Dalits, who would think many times before daring to
take them on.

*Conclusion*

The sexual assault on the four girls is clearly a casteist attack that is
often used to assert caste domination. It was intended to silence the
people, who dared to question their authority or power. It has compelled
the Dalits to leave the village. The fact is that casteist and patriarchal
forces are feeling emboldened because they feel that the Haryana
administration and the police are with them. The administration and police
have time and again protected the perpetrators not only in Bhagana but also
in the entire state.

The incidents in Bhagana are a perfect example of the impunity that the
powerful and dominant caste groups enjoy when they commit crimes on the
oppressed and marginalised sections of society. Their confidence that they
can get away with anything they do makes them repeat these crimes again and
again.

*AFDR, PUDR and WSS demand:*

•  A fresh FIR must be filed naming the sarpanch and his uncle for
intimidating the victims to remain silent about their complicity in the
crime committed.

•  Arrest of members of the illegal committee that carved out the Shamilat
lands should take place immediately.

•  The administration must ensure that the social boycott of Dalits is
ended immediately. And those responsible for this prosecuted under relevant
laws.

•  Every Dalit family must be given access to water and other facilities
like any other family in the village.

•  Dalit families must be provided protection so that they can return to
their village and it also must be ensured that they are not pressurised and
intimidated for withdrawing the cases.

•  Restoration of land use rights over Shamilat land should happen without
any delay. Access to common lands by Dalits should be upheld in practice by
all concerned.