Boycott of dalits undoing 'Beti Padhao'

Ahmedabad: One of the government’s crucial initiatives, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, is being undone by caste in a village 3 km away from Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel’s native village of Kharod in Mehsana district. A dalit girl student of class XII, Rita Senma (17), can’t go to her school in Mansa, some 7 km away from Abhrampura village in Vijapur taluka, because no vehicles — rickshaw or chakda — will ferry her, because of the boycott call given by dominant caste Patels.
On June 7, a clash between Patels and dalits is cited as the reason for the social boycott of the 13 dalit families of Abhrampura.While the dalits manage to get basic items from Mehsana once a week, Rita, whose family depends on their daily wages, are grounded at home.
Her poor father Kanu Senma can’t afford to buy a bicycle for her, so Rita hasn’t been able to attend school for more than a month.
This boycott doesn’t only affect Rita — the only dalit girl in the school who has reached class XII — but also her two younger sisters, Ranja and Nayna, who are in class VII and VIII respectively. They can’t go to school for fear of the ‘upper caste community’.
The state government authorities concede that there is indeed a boycott of dalits in the village, but officials say the situation was aggravated because “the suppressed class is using the Atrocity Act excessively”. The sarpanch’s husband, the de facto sarpanch, said everything was normal in the village.
S C Rathwa, deputy superintendent of police (DySP) of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe cell in Mehsana, confirmed that Rita couldn’t go to school because no vehicle would ferry her the 7 km to her school in Mansa town.
“The villagers must have threatened the rickshaw owners, so they are not ferrying this dalit girl to her school,” Rathwa said.
“The situation in the village is tense because dalits have filed nine atrocity cases against members of the dominant caste community, due to which there is a feeling of hatred among the upper caste people, who have boycotted the dalits,” Rathwa added.
Ashwin Patel, whose wife Ramila is sarpanch of the village, said, “The situation in the village is quite normal.” He added that he looks after work in the village on behalf of his wife.
Rita says, “I can’t walk 7 km every day. No vehicles will ferry me, so how can I study further.”