TUMAKURU: A Dalit couple from Kaimara Jampenahalli Cross in Koratagere taluk were stopped from giving a decent burial to their four-month-old baby on Sunday. They were about to lay the body inside a pit on the dry bed of the Suvarnamukhi rivulet when the staff of a nearby garment factory raised objection.
Rangantha and Nethravathi, both hawkers, do not even have a pucca house to live and were struggling to find a place to bury their baby as Dalits have no burial place in the area.
The baby had died of respiratory infection and the couple’s makeshift home is surrounded by stone quarry units. Dust menace has been troubling the residents here, locals say. The couple and relatives had arranged everything for burial and an elderly man placed the body inside the pit when security guards of the factory Shivalinga objected to it, claiming that it’s factory land.
“It does not belong to the factory as it comes under Survey No. 52 and it is a rivulet under Jetti Agrahara gram panchayat,” remarked Nagaraj, a resident. Following complaints, tahsildar Govindaraju conducted a survey of the land on Monday. Meanwhile, residents claimed they have been burying bodies at the same place for years.