Kerala’s nonagenarian Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan had the other day reflected the fury of the entire State over the brutal rape and murder of a 29-year-old poor Dalit law student of Perumbavoor near Kochi but it would be interesting to recall how he, as then Chief Minister, had taken an allegedly negative stand over the agitation by thousands of Dalits in the Chengara Hills seven years back for land to live on.
This is not the only example of the insensitivity shown towards the woes of and atrocities committed against the poor Dalits of Kerala, touted as the most socially emancipated State of India, but it was obvious in the approach of the local people and people’s representatives in the case of the Perumbavoor incident, according to Dalit activists.
It is pointed out that it took four long days for the police to show at least some seriousness towards a crime of such dimensions and magnitude mainly because of the lack of sensitivity of the people living near the small, insecure house of the victim inside which she was brutally raped and murdered in broad daylight.
Dalit activists, sociologists and psychologists term as irresponsible and insensitive the behavior of the people in the entire locality in maintaining for four days that they had not heard any cry, sound or commotion from the victim’s small house, the widows of which cannot be closed, in that late afternoon when she was raped, beaten and killed brutally.
“That silence of the local people was not entirely innocent especially when one considers the fact that the victim and her mother were living in total isolation from the neighbours and that they had been facing threats from people in that very locality. It is in such situations we tend to doubt the very concept of human trust,” said a journalist specializing in Dalit issues.
She criticized the reports that neighbours were refusing to mingle with the victim’s family because her mother had some mental problems. “From what we have seen about that mother in the past four days, it is certain that this was a theory built by those who did not like her and her daughter, maybe simply because they were Dalits” she said.
A retired police official said he was surprised at the lack of interest of the people in the locality to take up the issue of such a heinous crime that had happened in their area. “Keralites are known for their habit of forming special citizens’ groups to demand “fair probe” and such things when incidents like this take place. It is mysterious why this did not happen in this case,” he said.
Dalit rights activists like Sunny Kapikkad say that the police action would not have been delayed if the local people and the local people’s representatives had shown the minimum responsibility expected of them. “We should admit that Kerala is not a heaven where social segregations do not exist. That is what reality tells us,” said Kapikkad.
People’s representatives in the locality, including leftist legislator Saju Paul, are also accused of being insensitive towards the brutal rape-murder. It is pointed out that the people’s representatives, just like the police, had adopted a casual approach to the incident even after seeing the crime scene.
“Forget the charges about pressures on police. Why did the people’s representatives not take up the matter with the seriousness it called forIJ I am not saying they were trying to save someone. The fact is that they simply did not feel that the death – even rape-murder – of a poor Dalit woman was an issue over which they should lose their sleep,” said the journalist.