Villages awarded Rs 10 L despite caste-based burial grounds

CHENNAI: Despite being given Rs. 10 lakh as award by the state government for ensuring no caste discrimination in burial grounds, a field study conducted by Arappor Iyakkam has revealed that majority of awarded villages follow caste-based discrimination in the burial grounds defying the purpose of the award scheme.

During the study, volunteers of the anti-graft organization visited 13 of the 60 awarded villages in 8 districts to understand if the award of Rs. 10 lakh given were given to genuinely caste free villages or not.

Volunteers checked whether there are different burial grounds for other castes and scheduled castes and interacted with locals to understand if the burial grounds are caste free as claimed.

The 13 villages are Karunagareseri, Athipattu, Thadapperumbakkam in Tiruvallur, Othakadai in Madurai, Kadakathur, Begarahalli, Sinthalpadi in Dharmapuri, Kudimangalam, Kumaramangalam in Tiruppur, Ullaar in Tenkasi, Kondaikavundampalayam in Coimbatore, Nallampillai in Trichy and Konomoolai in Erode.

Of the 13 villages studied, caste discrimination in burial grounds was not followed in Konamoolai in Erode district and Kadakathur in Dharmapuri only.

During the field visit to Konamoolai, it was found that this Crematorium is not used much. Since there is an electrical crematorium in Satyamangalam town which is around 4 kms from this village, most of the people from all caste cremate the bodies in the electrical crematorium, Therefore the presence of electrical crematorium seems to have solved the issue of caste discrimination in this village. On the other hand, residents belonging to all communities are allowed to cremate in the same burial ground in Kadakathur.

In the remaining 11 villages, either separate burial grounds are allocated for scheduled castes or they are allowed to cremate on one side of the burial ground. Some burial grounds have partitions, the report said.

"Therefore, based on the data collected in our study it is clear that the selection of villages for awarding incentive of Rs 10 lakhs claiming they are caste free role model villages are incorrect and improper. Such gross errors in selection of villages seem to defy the very purpose of the scheme," the report added.

It also highlighted that the villagers and those working in the burial grounds in most of the villages were not aware of the Government’s initiative on caste free burial grounds. It was also found in a few places that the workers of the burial grounds are forced to follow caste discriminatory cremation by a few caste discriminatory people in the village.

'Electric crematorium is solution'

While suggesting electric crematorium as a solution to the problem, the report said that the experience in both Erode (Konamoolai) as well as electric crematorium in many towns and cities suggest their potential to make cremation caste free.

"The Government should provide a budget and implement electric crematoriums, at least at the rate of 1 electric crematorium for each block. An electric crematorium has the potential to make it caste free in the last ride of the human being," the report urged.

In a a letter to Chief Minister MK Stalin, minister N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj and officials, M Radhakrishnan of Arappor Iyakkam urged the government to ensure the process of identifying the caste-free cemeteries error free in the future and proper monitoring by the District Collectors in charge. There should be ways for the local public to provide feedback on the caste free nature of the burial grounds.

"Officials should be held accountable for awarding funds to villages that are still following discrimination based on caste in their burial grounds. The district administration should carry massive awareness in the villages for caste free burial grounds. Training against caste discrimination during cremation/ burying should be provided to the workers of the crematorium," he demanded.