annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Madhya Pradesh
during mid-day meal in a government
primary school in Poorankhedi village in
Shivpuri district. The school authority had
to start maintaining a separate kitchen for
the schoolchildren belonging to the Dalits
and the indigenous peoples. 25
In October 2004, upper caste Hindus
beat up the Dalits mercilessly in Sehora
Khurd area in Raisen district, burnt their
crops and looted their belongings. But
when the Dalits went to the Gairatganj
police station to lodge a complaint they
were arrested and cases under Section 307
Indian Penal Code for attempted murder
were filed against them. When the
aggrieved dalit women approached the
local police station, their complaint was
not registered. 26
When the landless Dalits get patta
(ownership deed) from the government,
the farmers from the upper castes chase
them away and grab their lands under the
noses of the authorities. In August 2004,
many landless Dalits like Achhelal
Chamar, Barelal Chamar, Lachhu Chamar,
Nonelal Chamar and Gorelal Chamar from
Shivrajpur village of Chhatarpur district
got patta (ownership deed). But when they
began to till their land, they were assaulted
and chased away by goons allegedly hired
by the rich farmers belonging to the upper
caste. 27
There have also been innumerable
instances where the government granted
pattas of uncultivated or waste land to
Dalits, who then laboured hard and made
their lands cultivable only to find that their
ownership deeds had been cancelled on
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some pretext or the other. The pattas of the
twenty-five Dalit families of Amrod Taj,
Duparia Jheel and Dandi villages in
Sehore district were cancelled reportedly
on frivolous grounds. 28
Violence against the Dalit women
On the night of 8 February 2004, a
Dalit woman was allegedly raped inside
her room and then set on fire by her
landlord and his friend in Tulsi Nagar
colony in Shivpuri district. The victim
reportedly sustained 90 per cent burn
injuries and was admitted to the district
hospital in Shivpuri. Police registered
cases of rape and attempt to murder
against the accused. 29
On 3 March 2004, a 13-year-old Dalit
girl identified as Geeta Saket was
reportedly found dead in the hostel’s
bathroom at the St Mary School’s hostel at
Devsar, Sidhi district. The hostel authority
and the police said she had committed
suicide. But the post mortem on her body
revealed that she was raped before she
died. 30
On 15 March 2004, a 23-year-old
Dalit housewife was allegedly abducted
from her house at the Kamlaganj area in
Shivpuri district and gangraped by three
unidentified persons. 31
On the night of 8 July 2004, three
women of a Dalit family were allegedly
gang raped by about thirty men belonging
to upper caste Yadav community at
Bhamtola village under Kahniwara police
station in Seoni district. The accused
attacked the house of Govardhan and