Dalits and upper castes have separate cremation grounds in 90 percent villages of Haryana, claims Dalit rights activist
Kalsan said that he had done a survey on Facebook, in which the people of the state commented that the crematoriums in his village have also been classified on the basis of caste and there is a separate cremation ground for Dalits.
Praveen Sharma Hisar. talks Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:53 PM
There does not seem to be an end to casteism and untouchability in the country.According to Dalit rights activist and lawyer Rajat Kalsan, 90 per cent of Haryana’s villages have separate cremation grounds for Dalits and upper castes.
There does not seem to be an end to casteism and untouchability in the country.According to Dalit rights activist and lawyer Rajat Kalsan, 90 per cent of Haryana’s villages have separate cremation grounds for Dalits and upper castes.
Rajat Kalsan, convener of the National Alliance for Dalit Human Rights, said in a statement issued in Hisar that according to Article 17 of the Constitution, untouchability on the basis of caste has been abolished in the country and it has been declared a crime. Despite this, even today, in 90 percent of the villages of Haryana, when a villager dies, his caste decides where that person will get the fire, because in 90 percent of the villages, the cremation grounds are built on the basis of caste.
Kalsan said that he had done a survey on Facebook, in which people from all over the state commented that the cremation grounds have been classified on the basis of caste in his village and even today there is a separate cremation ground for Dalits in the villages.Many users told that in many villages there is no cremation ground for Dalits and many users also told that the dead body of a person from Dalit community is not allowed to pass through the main roads of the village.
He alleged that the state government is also releasing grants to the gram panchayats for the construction of caste-based cremation grounds, which is quite illegal.
Kalsan said that many times there have been fights in the village on this issue and people belonging to the scheduled caste community have been prevented from performing the last rites of their loved ones in the public crematorium.Referring to an incident of last year, he said that in Rohtak’s village Mokhra, people belonging to a Scheduled Caste community were stopped by people belonging to a particular caste from burning the dead body of their elder, creating a very complicated situation. And a case of SC / ST Act was also registered against the people of a particular caste.
Kalsan said that Article 17 of the Constitution as well as the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Atrocities Act also provides for punishment against people who behave like this, but despite strict laws, the caste mentality of the people is not going to end. taking.
He said that the governments should work to end such caste discrimination by rising above the politics of votes and make a public cremation ground in all the villages and villagers should also take initiative for this progressive step by abandoning the casteist mindset.Kalsan said that he would soon file a public interest litigation in this regard in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking to end this discrimination.
