WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
India - New Delhi
By Renu Kshetry
Kalli Kumari
B.K., 45, a Dalit woman, was the victim of a heinous crime - she was tortured,
beaten and forced to eat human excreta. (Credit: Renu Kshetry\WFS)
Recently B.K., a Dalit woman, was the
victim of a heinous crime - she was tortured, beaten and forced to eat human
excreta. The person who orchestrated this barbaric act was a supposedly
educated woman: Bimala Lama. The principal of the local
Ironically, despite the then deputy
Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam ordering the police to issue an
arrest warrant against her, Lama managed to flee. When human rights activists,
journalists and police personnel arrived to arrest her, villagers ganged up and
started attacking them. So far only three people have been apprehended and Lama
remains at large. Rights activists have linked the delay in justice to the fact
that B.K. is a Dalit, while Lama has close links with the local Nepal Congress
Party.
On the evening of March 20, when B.K.
was working in the fields with her husband, she was summoned to Lama's house.
Oblivious to the horrors that awaited her there, she complied. As soon as she
reached the house, Lama and her niece attacked her, accusing her of practising
witchcraft on Lama and her ailing daughter.
The incident took place after local
resident, Sherman Lama, blamed B.K. for Lama's daughter's failing health. B.K.
flatly refutes the allegations, "I did not do anything. She (Lama) gave my
daughter an old salwar-kurta (traditional outfit) two years ago. She then
accused me of using it to practise witchcraft on her. She beat me till I bled.
We may be poor but we do not stoop that low to harm others. In fact, I don't
know what this witchcraft is all about."
Yet, so badly was B.K. tortured after
being held all night in a locked room at Lama's residence, that she 'admitted'
to being a 'witch'.
"It is a gross violation of human
rights and it will have a severe affect on the Dalit community, both mentally
and physically," said Dhan Kumari Sunar, a member of the National Women
Commission. She added, "Our prime concern is to ensure that the culprit(s)
are put behind bars and to rehabilitate B.K. so that she can live a life of
respectability and security."
Sunar pointed out that it is only if
the police catch the culprits would they be able to signal that such crimes
will no longer be overlooked and ensure that incidents like these are not
repeated.
According to legal provisions as per
the new amendment to the 'Muluki Ain' (Country Code in Nepal), the culprit can
get anything from three months to two years of imprisonment along with a fine
ranging from Rs 5,000 (US$60) to Rs 25,000 (US$304), depending on the degree of
the crime.
But this is certainly not the first
time such a case has been reported. In
In 2006, Dayawati Urab, 52, and her
daughter, Sunita, of Sunsari district, were stripped naked, beaten and forced
to eat human faeces for practising 'witchcraft' by the local community.
After the incident took place, Jagaran
Media Center (JMC), an NGO that works for the rights of the Dalit community,
said that this was the third time Dayawati was forced to eat excrement. In
2005, the villagers under the leadership of local political leaders fined her
Rs 3,000, after accusing her of the same charge. Her husband, Tikaram, was also
fired from his job. Dayawati has now been banned from participating in
religious ceremonies. She has been so severely ostracised in her village that
she cannot even make a living. "They [the locals] hold me responsible for
all the accidents (like if anybody fall sick or there is a drought or loss of
property by any means) that happen here," she said.
According to Purna Singh Baraily, vice
president, JMC, "Cases involving Dalits are still not taken seriously and
victims suffer throughout their lives. Yet nobody cares about them."
Although untouchability was abolished
in
Referring to such women's lack of
access to legal measures, Binod Pahari, Member of Parliament, observed,
"Those who are already oppressed gets suppressed all the time."
Referring to police apathy in arresting
the six accused in B.K.'s case, even after weeks have gone by, General
Secretary of Dalit NGO Federation, Bom Bahadur Biswokarma, said that because of
the government's lack of seriousness, victims hardly ever get justice. "In
order to end superstition, the culprits should be punished," he
reiterated.
Meanwhile B.K. hasn't fully recovered
from the trauma she underwent. When asked what punishment she'd like to give
Lama for her atrocities, she said, "I will not feed her human excreta as
she did to me. My moral conscience will not let me do that. But I definitely
want to kick her at least one or two times in front of all the villagers. She,
and those who helped her, have to admit their crime before everyone in my
village, so that they understand what it means to lose one's honour."
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