Yet more ills of the caste system

[H4RPAL]

Just read this on yahoo news- yet another appaling episode to add to the great volume of injustices based on caste. Just wonder where my donation is headed !

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India's untouchables forced out of relief camps

KESHVANPALAYAM, India (AFP) - India's untouchables, reeling from the tsunami disaster, are being forced out of relief camps by higher caste survivors and being denied aid supplies, activists charged.

Kuppuswamy Ramachandran, 32, a Dalit or untouchable in India's rigid caste hierarchy, said he and his family were told to leave a relief camp in worst-hit Nagapattinam district where 50 more families were housed.

"The higher caste fishing community did not allow us to sleep in a marriage hall where they are put up because we belong to the lowest caste," Ramachandran said.

"After three days we were moved out to a school but now the school is going to reopen within three days and the teachers drove us out," he said.

"Where will I take my family and children? The school had no lights, toilets or drinking water," available for the displaced.

More than 6,000 people died when tsunamis struck this southern Indian coastal district on December 26 and activists said that included 81 Dalits, who were daily wage earners working in agricultural lands.

The ferocious wall of sea water destroyed swathes of farm land and the Dalits no longer have any employment.

At Keshvanpalayam, the Dalits had only flattened homes to show while survivors elsewhere enjoyed relief supplies such as food, medicines, sleeping mats and ke

rosene.

No government official or aid has flowed into the village which houses 83 Dalit families more than 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Nagapattinam town.

Cranes and bulldozers cleared the debris of a neighbouring fishing community, but they are yet to reach the Dalit village.

Chandra Jayaram, 35, who lost her husband to the tsunamis, said her family has not received promised government compensation of 100,000 rupees (2,174 dollars).

"At the relief camps we are treated differently due to our social status. We are not given relief supplies. The fishing community told us not to stay with them. The government says we will not be given anything as we are not affected much," Jayaram said.

S. Karuppiah, field coordinator with the Human Rights Forum for Dalit Liberation, said in some of the villages the dead bodies of untouchables were removed with reluctance.

"The Dalit villages are in most places proving to be the preferred choice of the fishing community to bury the dead. If the Dalits ask for relief materials the government says they can only give the leftovers," Karuppiah said.

"The government is turning a blind eye," he said. "When Dalits bury the dead they are not given gloves or medicines but only alcohol to forget the rotten stench."

Another activist, Mahakrishnan Marimuthu, who heads the non-governmental Education and Handicraft Training Trust, said tsunamis dealt a double blow to the caste.

"They lost their jobs, houses and relatives. On the other hand the social discrimination is proving to be worse," he said.

The government denied the allegations and said it was providing relief to every tsunami-affected family. "There is no intention of closing down any camps and we are providing relief to each and every family. We will provide temporary shelters as these relief camps are getting overcrowded," said Veerashanmugha Moni, Nagapattinam's senior government administrator.

The United Nations (news - web sites) Childre

n's Fund UNICEF (news - web sites) said government, relief agencies and aid workers did not discriminate against the Dalits but the caste issue always exists.

"All the aid going in is distributed the same way to all survivors. The social discrimination has been there during normal times," said Amudha, who heads a team of UNICEF volunteers in Nagapattinam.

"After the disaster happened it is still continuing. That is nothing new," she said.

Vijaya Lakshmi, spokeswoman for South India Federation of Fishermen Societies, agreed and said one could not wish away a centuries-old caste system when a disaster struck.

"If they (Dalits) are comfortable by staying separate they will," she said.

[Inder 84]

This is really bad

Caste systems should be left in the past. It breaks my heart reading things like this knowing there are still people out there who see their own brothers and sisters as below them. <_<

people nead to learn to live together as one as equals.

vwihgurU jI kw Kwlsw!

vwihgurU jI kI &iqh!!

[smartsingh24]

This is apalling. I'm at a loss for words. How people can be so cruel to one another is beyond me...

[H4RPAL]

The thing I believe laest is that even when all have become beggars, when the ego of all should be shattered, such things still happen. I know this would sound rather unfair, and many people would disagree, I just which there was a way I could channel my own donations to the real needy- the ones whos need would have shattered the falsehoods of castist beliefs, and the ones, who are once again opressed. While we must feel for every single person touched by the horrific events, such things make me think twice about putting my hands in my pockets to make any more donations- the first thing anyone asks when donating to charity is will the money really go to a good cause- our money is just going to reinforce castist anti-Sikh beliefs here. The aid agencies should be made aware of this, especially the Sikh agencies who will be familiar with such contexts. Maybe if no-one else bothers, they could make it their niche to help the most needy at this horrific time of depravity, maybe they can provide the voice for the opressed and forgotten. So many years of opression have destroyed the dalits, we are lucky that with the Kirpa of Waheguru the Sikh Qaum still has a voice. Despite all atrocities aginst it the Qaum still lives, and speaks, and will never be silenced like the unfortunate dalits.

[no_one]

:wub: :|

[jagjit_waheguru]

Waheguroo Jee Ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo Jee Kee Fateh!!

Pyare jio, this is happening everywhere. Some places it is to do with caste, others just rich and poor. The poor always suffer.

If you follow the reports you will see in Thailand, the rescuers concentrated on the tourists, not the common people. Now they are quickly tryong to get the tourists areas clean, and working, while many poor peoples bodies have still not been recovered in their areas.

If you speak to the Khalsa aid sevadaars from slough, in Gujerat, our very own white clothes sants (likes of Maan Singh) were only helping rich sikh people. The RSS were only helping rich hindus. The muslim relief organisation were only helping muslims. Only Khalsa aid was helping the poor.

Waheguroo Jee Ka Khalsa!

Waheguroo Jee Kee Fateh!!

[H4RPAL]

If that truly is the case, then everyone should get their wallets (or purses) out for Khalsa Aid. Has anyone got the details on hand to post on this thread as to how to make a donation?