Caste India: Dalit Christians complain relief for Untouchables and Brahmins in care centres is caste-based

Caste India: Dalit Christians complain relief for Untouchables and Brahmins in care centres is caste-based

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In Narsinghpatana, India, a village in the Puri district of Odisha, Bijoy and fellow Dalit families managed to enter the cyclone relief shelter after they were stopped by neighbours from the dominant caste.

They “allowed us to enter the shelter on the condition that we would stay in a specific part of the shelter and would not come close to them”, said Bijoy.

Once there, they faced friction over their use of the single water pump. According to a study from Wayanad, Kerala, 50 per cent of Dalit Christians reported that water sources and vessels for Dalits and dominant castes in relief centres were separate. This hinders water access, a particular obstacle amid humanitarian crises such as natural disasters.

“When we used the hand pump, [members of different castes] used to wash the hand pump with water and clean their hands before they used it,” Bijoy said, laughing.

In Kerala, Seena faced a similar experience when she and her family were crammed into a room with seven other Dalit families – separate from where the other castes were staying.

Binni Kandi, 55, lives in Olarpur village in Odisha’s Puri district. Most of her neighbours are members of a dominant caste and live in well-built homes, whereas Kandi, who did allow us to use her real name, lives in a temporary hut made of mud and dry leaves.

When Cyclone Fani hit, Kandi and 13 other Dalit families had to seek shelter in a nearby government school. “Our whole roof flew away,” she narrates. “Brahmins (a dominant caste) watched from their windows as we struggled to pack our documents.”

Because it’s a Brahmin-dominated area and they typically have well-built houses, there’s no multi-purpose cyclone relief shelter, while government planners ignore the needs of the marginalised.

“Since Dalits do not have representation that can influence hyperlocal policies, they usually get ignored in matters of relief or compensation,” explained Kumar, of RIGHTS.

Binni Kandi’s mud hut home in Odisha was blown away by Cyclone Fani in 2019. She was refused compensation because it didn’t exist anymore and she didn’t have any documents to prove ownership.

In Narasinghpatana, a few miles south along the coast from Kandi’s home, one can easily tell who was impacted most by Cyclone Fani – even three years later. A group of houses with blue roofs made of tarpaulin sits at one end of the village. At the other end, the homes are all well-built structures. Every person living under a tarpaulin roof is Dalit.

The tarpaulin was meant as temporary relief, providing villagers with shelter while they waited for damage compensation from the state. But three years on, having yet to receive compensation, those have become permanent roofs. “We are the ones who have lost everything,” Bijoy said. “[The other castes] have rebuilt their homes, [they’re] back to their jobs, and here we are, living under the blue plastic.”

Others struggle to receive any support. Many Dalits are largely landless due to their historic inability to access land titles and documentation. According to the census, 71 per cent of Dalits are labourers who work on land they do not own.

Kandi’s house was completely blown away by the cyclone, as she lived in what is called a kutcha house with mud walls and a thatched roof. She and her family stayed in the relief camp for over three months waiting for compensation or state support.

When government officials finally arrived to assess the damage, she was refused compensation because her house didn’t exist anymore and she didn’t have land records.

It’s impossible to know how many like Kandi continue to live without relief or compensation because no government has ever released caste-segregated data on how natural disasters have affected Dalits. The NCDHR and RIGHTS have been advocating for the government to release such data for years.

“The other castes have rebuilt their homes, they’re back to their jobs, and here we are, living under the blue plastic.”

For Mallick of Ambedkar Lohia Vichar Manch, Dalit communities have been robbed of the right to a fair assessment. “Successive governments have failed to address landlessness, which is their responsibility,” he said.

Compounding the issue is the fact that compensation is structured in a way that tends to negatively impact Dalits. The compensation for loss of livestock stands at 30,000 Indian rupees (about $365) for the loss of a cow, 5,000 ($60) for poultry and only 3,000 ($36) for a goat. While the cost of purchasing a cow is correctly estimated in these policies, the cost of a goat is at least six times that of the compensation issued by the state. Because cattle is an expensive animal to maintain, Dalits are far more likely to own small livestock.

“All of the people who are on the policymaking level consider themselves as ‘casteless’ even though most of them come from dominant caste communities,” noted Kumar.

Seena, Bijoy and Kandi are still struggling to recover from the disaster. While they should have received up to $3,700 each, three or four years on, their evaluations have yet to be completed. The cyclone or flood may have passed, but for them and countless more like them, the disaster hasn’t ended.

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