JAGATSINGHPUR: Sounds bizarre, but a Dalit man of Jagatsinghpur’s Salijanga is facing ostracisation along with his family for last two years because he registered a complaint with police over alleged rape of his daughter without taking the village committee into confidence.
The village leaders were unanimous that the “unilateral” decision of Samarendra Sethy and his family tarnished the image of Salijanga and excommunicated them. However, Sethy’s is not the only family which has been ostracised, three more Dalit families and an anganwadi worker too are facing the same fate for trying to help him.
In the fight between the village leaders and Dalits, an Anganwadi centre in Salijanga has been the casualty and shut down.
On August 7, 2014, Samarendra’s daughter was allegedly raped by Badal Sethy of the same village. The father filed a complaint in Tirtol police station. This, however, did not go down well with the village leaders who accused Samarendra of disrespecting the village rules by not informing the gram sabha about the incident before registering a police complaint.
Alleging that the image of the village has been tarnished, the leaders imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him. Although Samarendra paid `2,000 and `2,700 on two occasions, he was not able to pay the rest. Subsequently, Samarendra and his family were ostracised. When three other Dalits - Amrendra Sethy, Golekha Sethy, Sarada Das - tried to help him, they too faced the same fate. Neither were they allowed to take water from the community well nor purchase ration from shops and milk from cowherds of the village.
An Anganwadi worker of the village, Kalyani Mohanty, was also ostracised for interacting with Samarendra’s wife Annapurna. As villagers refused to send their children to the Anganwadi centre, it remained closed for five months prompting the district administration to shift it to Kutilo village, 500 metres away, in February 2015. The Anganwadi centre now caters to only seven children from Salijanga and eight from Kutilo.
IIC of Tirtol police station, Balaram Nayak said, accused Badal has been arrested but no FIR has been registered by the ostracised families against the village leaders. If a complaint is filed, action would be taken, said Nayak.
The district administration, on the other hand, is yet to reach the hapless families. Sub-Collector Narahari Sethy said villagers of Salijanga did not allow the Anganwadi centre to operate which is why the administration was forced to shift it to Kutilo.