The Dalits in rural Gujarat have always faced socio-economic segregation and oppression from the upper castes. In yet another incident, the Dalit community of Nesda village under Tankara block in Rajkot has faced the ire of the dominant higher castes in the village for refusing to do manual scavenging. The enraged Panchayat has therefore slammed a total socio-economic blockade on the community for the last two months.

A similar incident was reported by The Indian Express on August 20 this year when the dominant higher castes boycotted the Dalits in Pirali village of Limdi Taluka of Surendranagar district, when the latter protested against the higher caste people letting their sewerage into the Dalit ghetto of the village.

According to Jaman Parmar, a Dalit villager from Nesda, tension was simmering between the communities for quite some time. “There has been no Panchayat election in our village for the last two terms and it was elected uncontested under the Samras scheme,” Jaman said, stating further that while the village subsequently received extra development funds from the government for the same, nothing has been done for the Dalit areas so far. “Not only that, there is no Dalit representative in the Panchayat and even in the Social Justice Centre of the village,” he added.

Jaman said: “On August 5, they held a public meeting in the village and declared that the Dalits are to be excommunicated from the village, as they are refusing to carry out their traditional duty of taking care of the dead animals of the village in a public system. Now, no one from the village calls us to the farm, or gives us any work. We cannot get flour from the village, or grocery, not even milk. We cannot also take a rickshaw owned by them.”

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