With 75 Dalits threatening self-immolation at Bhimnagar in Koregaon taluka of Satara district on Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on Monday, the undercurrent of exclusion that governs the lives of Dalits has again come to the fore.

The Dalits were protesting against a 155-metre wall erected in front of their village that bars them from entering the community hall located in the nearby village of Dare. As tensions rose, the district administration intervened, convincing the protesters to call off their threat.

The village of Bhimnagar came into existence in 1959 when those displaced due to the construction of the Koyna dam were given land there. While most of the settlers belonged to the lower caste, some upper caste people were given land in 1961.

This led to the creation of a new village called Dare in 1994, to the south of Bhimnagar. However, soon people from the two villages were quarrelling over distribution of land and the common community hall. A case is pending on the matter in the district court.

“The main problem is the distribution of land between the two villages. The decision of the lower court, declared in July 2007, went against Bhimnagar. A compound wall was erected by the zilla parishad from the funds provided by an MLA,” said District Collector Vikas Deshmukh. However, the wall acted as a border between the two villages and barred access to the community hall located in Dare for residents of Bhimnagar, who celebrate the Ambedkar Jayanti there every year.

The Bhimnagar villagers have appealed to the district court. “We are facing problems while trying to enter the community hall, which belongs to us. We have given several notices to the administration but nobody is listening. So to attract the attention of the district administration, 75 of us threatened to commit suicide,” said a villager.

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