CHENNAI: An entire Dalit fishers’ hamlet in Chennai comprising 150 families has been unable to use a public toilet complex due to hostility from a handful of dominant caste families from an adjoining hamlet who oppose laying of underground sewage pipeline for the toilet near their houses.
Renovation work for the toilet complex in Thalankuppam, which has six toilets each for men and women, was completed at a cost of around Rs 30 lakh three months ago. But the toilets remain locked as work to lay drainage pipelines to the facility could not be completed as families belonging to a dominant community in neighbouring Nettukuppam not only stopped the civic body from carrying out the work but also raised a wall to stop the pipelines from passing near their houses.
A senior corporation official said zonal officer of Thiruvottiyur (zone 1) had to abandon the plan to lay the pipeline recently after aggressive objections from a section of people from the neighbourhood.
“We have appraised the Avadi police commissioner of the issue and sought police protection. We will be fixing a date shortly and laying the pipes with police protection,” the official said.
Since Thalankuppam is on an elevated plane, the natural course for sewage would be through the low-lying Nettukuppam.
The residents of both hamlets are brothers at sea, but residents of Thalankuppam said some fishermen at Nettukuppam often hurl caste abuses at them and sometimes even use them as examples to teach their children how not to be.
N Soundarrajan, a resident of Thalankuppam since birth, said that while many of the dominant caste families in Nettukuppam were empathetic to their plight, they were unwilling to stand up against their ‘own people’ who object to the toilet.
"These handfuls of families have made it clear in the tasteless language that 'our waste' cannot flow through their part of the neighbourhood even if it is underground. They have also hurled caste abuses which I don’t want to repeat," he said.
While the toilet itself was over 40 years old, it was taken up for renovation by the city corporation three years ago, when the issue started.
"We have been using the toilet ever since I was a young girl without any problem because houses have not come up near the toilet then. Several houses have come up on the Nettukuppam side near the toilet now and they are the ones who are now protesting," said 70-year-old Karuppayi.
N Kavitha, a young mother of two children aged below 10, has been taking her children to the next nearest public toilet about a km away on Thalankuppam beach road.
"I’m forced to walk to that toilet though we have a public toilet right here. I take the children there once in the morning as soon as they get up but by the time they get ready for school, they sometimes ask to go again and I rush them there. At nights many of us are forced to use covered, open spaces," she said.
Councillors of wards 1 and 4, Sivakumar and R Jayaraman, have made futile attempts to put the toilet to use.
"Even after police and corporation officials got involved the last time when a group of families protested when pipes for drainage were being laid, they did not budge. We have written to multiple corporation officials and also to the CM cell," Jayaraman said.
M Rajkumar of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) said they will try all means possible to end the conflict amicably.
In its complaint to the CM's cell sent on July 3, TNUEF had said, "A wall has been raised in the area where the drainage pipe from the toilet to be used by 200 families belonging to the Scheduled Caste community was to be laid. By obstructing the drainage flow and thereby the usage of the toilet that had served the community for years, modern untouchability is being perpetrated in the most horrifying fashion."
"The issue should be resolved quickly because there is tension building up between the two communities," Rajkumar said.
When contacted, a senior corporation official said that if the objections raised by the dominant communities are found to be coloured by caste prejudice, the civic body will proceed as per law to ensure that the toilet is operational.
As a stop-gap arrangement, the civic body is planning to operate the toilet complex with septic tanks for the next three months, another senior official said.