HYDERABAD: People of the Dakkali caste are one of the 193 communities that are categorised as Denotified Tribes or (DNTs). They are forced to beg exclusively from the Madiga Community, one of the Scheduled Castes.
Banala Mangesh, a Dakkali shares how his community is discriminated against, not just by the privileged but also, the Madigas who have been subject to atrocities for centuries.
“We are not eligible to do anything, other than beg from people from the Madiga community. If we want to drink water from the pump in the village, we have to wait for upper caste people to come and pour some from a height while taking the precaution of not touching us. Then, the utensil is sanitised,” shared Mangesh, who is part of the Dakkali Hakkula Porata Samithi.
As a bright student, enrolled in a residential school, Mangesh as a 13-year-old, had was belittled by his headmaster. The headmaster walked into the classroom demanding details of students. “I said it out, in a muffled voice and within seconds all the children around me started walking away from me. I went back after a few days and people started abusing me,” recalled Mangesh.
At a workshop held in the city, Stigmatisation, Discrimination and Criminalisation of DNTs, Gender and Sexual Minorities, marking International Human Rights Day on Saturday, Mangesh and several others from the community talked about how they are identified as criminals.
“They are all identified and dealt with as per the Criminal Tribes Act (1871). It was believed that members of certain communities were predisposed to be criminals like weavers or carpenters. That is the idea with which these people are perceived,” said Malli Subba Rao, from the National Alliance of DNT organisations.
This Act was repealed and was replaced by the Habitual Offenders’ Act. “Today, they are prohibited from owning assets or taking up any profitable livelihoods. Hence they are homeless some take up prostitution. They do not have any place to go as they will be threatened and are forcefully imprisoned, if they raise their voice. They could be raped or murdered, but they do not want to go to the police, because they are terrified,” Rao added.