In some TN villages, caste bias overshadows death

The neighbourhood is called Ambedkar Nagar. But the Dalits of Kudimangalam in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district have no equality even in death. The entrance to the village’s burial ground is reserved for the dominant Gounder caste, and the Scheduled Caste community relegated to burying their dead on a separate patch of land in the shadows. “There is a big patch of land for burial by the lake. But we have to take a separate mud road and enter only from the back. We have stopped questioning it. This how it has always been,” one Dalit resident said.

- Divya Chandrababu

DESPITE STATE GOVT PROGRAMME

Except, this is not how it still should be.

In November 2021, Kudimangalam was among 60 villages in Tamil Nadu selected by the DMK government in a scheme that sought to puncture caste discrimination by mandating a common burial ground for all communities. Six months after coming to power, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced the scheme that offered ₹10 lakh to these villages for development work, as long as they did not discriminate on caste lines in burial grounds, making a budgetary allocation of ₹11 crore.

Close to two years later, Chennai-based anti-corruption group Arappor Iyakkam (roughly translated to the 'movement for a good fight') said that they conducted an audit in 13 of the 60 villages, and found that only two have a common burial ground consistent with the scheme. "Based on the data we collected, the selection of villages for awarding the cash incentive for being caste-free role model villages is incorrect," said Jayaram Venkatesan, founder of Arappor Iyakkam, which identifies gaps through social audits to improve governance.

In many ways, the audit confirms lived reality. On the ground in Tamil Nadu, caste shapes everyday life, and dictates electoral outcomes. In the hinterlands, there are streets where Dalits are barred from upper caste streets even to collect water; neighbourhoods are demarcated by caste flags, and these colours adorn road infrastructure. In several parts, a Dalit is OF neighbourhood referred to as a "colony" and there are separate temples, shops and saloons for the community.