Nagpur 1 Feb:  The Commission on Dalits in the National Council of Churches in India vehemently condemns the heinous act of the ‘upper caste’ people in Odisha, who burnt down around thirty houses of Dalits. The inertia of the government in taking action against the culprit and protect the Dalits is strongly criticised by the Commission.

It is astonishing and unbelievable that these atrocities happen even after six decades of independence. As India prepared herself to celebrate yet another Republic Day, the helpless Dalits in Odisha had to flee to save their lives from the caste Hindus. It is a known fact that most of the Dalits in India are landless and they live in makeshift houses. They are destined to do bond labour, labour without proper wages and many a time live like slaves because of the inhuman caste system in India. Now the Dalits in Lathor Village, Bolangir district of Odisha are made homeless. In this village, after the burning of Dalit huts, there is no single Dalit family left! Even though the Dalits were not killed, by making them homeless and compelling them to flee, the upper caste people in the village was doing another form of genocide. Women were abused publicly. The academic documents of students were burnt down. Men ran into the forest for their lives.

The steps taken by the government and police are insufficient. The Dalits families who lost houses shifted to the nearby government school where the conditions are utterly bad. All the relief work are insufficient to the victims, still people do not have proper clothes to save themselves from winter. Police are taking a lethargic approach. When they tried to arrest some of the culprits even the ‘high caste’ women opposed the police. Police fails to extend justice to the innocent Dalits.

Hence the Commission on Dalits in NCCI demands the authorities:
• To declare Bolangir District in Odisha as an atrocity prone area against Dalits.
• To arrest the culprits and the political leaders behind this heinous crime at the earliest.
• To provide new houses to all the victims.
• That the government should give compensations for all the materials such as furniture, utensils, Ornaments if any, clothes, and food grains those were burnt down.
• That the government should issue duplicates of all the certificates those are burnt into ashes.
• That the government take appropriate steps to bring back the Dalits into the village.
• That atmosphere should be created at the earliest for the Dalits to work, earn livelihood and the Dalit students to continue their studies.
• That government should form a committee which consists of representatives of Dalits, upper caste, activists and government officials to avoid similar untoward instances in the future.

Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad,
General Secretary,
National Council of Churches in India

Rev. Sunil Raj Philip,
Executive Secretary, Commission on Dalits,
National Council of Churches in India