Caste system has been defining a lot of society’s norms since centuries now. It is also evidence of a regressive Indian thought process which continues to plague our country, more than sixty-five years after our independence.
On June 13, a minor Dalit girl was fetching water from hand pump in Ganeshpura village near Chattarpur and her shadow fell on muscleman Puran Yadav who belongs to a “higher caste”.
What happened next will mess with your mind.
She was allegedly beaten up badly by another woman of higher caste belonging to Yadav’s family. And it didn’t end there. The girl was also warned that she will be killed if spotted again near the hand pump.
Now these may seem like unrelated events but this really happened. A minor girl was beaten up by an adult woman because the girl’s shadow fell on the woman’s male family member. Because the minor girl happened to be born into a lower caste and the man was born into a higher caste. And the sun was at a certain angle.
Puran Yadav’s family tried to keep the girl and her family from going to the police but they succeeded and a case under Sections 323, 341 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code was registered against all the accused at the Gadi Malhera Police Station.
Despite being a “free” and an independent country, untouchability prevails rampantly in several parts of rural India, where dalits are prohibited from coming in contact with people of “higher” castes. Most Panchayats favour the caste system and support untouchability and the laws mentioned in the constitution are barely enforced.
