Until a month before Naveen Patnaik became Orissa's chief minister in March 2000, Dalit labourer Ganapati Naik, now 42, had been living a happy if impoverished life with his bride and parents in Balichhai village of Ganjam district.

On February 20, Babula Nayak, 28, of the Hadi caste (one of 93 scheduled castes in Orissa) of Balichhai was buying potatoes when his hand accidentally brushed that of grocer Pradip Patra, who belonged to a higher caste. Patra hurled abuses at Nayak for "desecrating" him. The village was already tense as Dalit youths had started questioning the discrimination they had been facing for generations. Over the next few days, Dalit houses were burnt or demolished, men beaten up, and women abused and at times molested.

Today, Ganapati and his family of six are cooped up in a poultry farm in Balipadar village, 10 km from Balichhai, unable to return home as the upper castes have taken over the village. The farm belongs to Ganapati's uncle, who has rented it out to the fleeing family.

"I want to go back. Who would want to stay in a dark broiler farm?" says Ganapati. "But who would guarantee my safety?"

Fifty other Dalit families feel the same, having fled Balichhai to Bhubaneswar and elsewhere.

In judgments in 2006 and 2011, the Orissa Human Rights Commission said the Balichhai case was a clear one of torture, social injustice and atrocities against the Dalit population by upper caste Hindus. "The district administration and the police have to work out an action plan... It would be just inhuman and unacceptable to leave a weaker section of the community suffering the atrocity caused by the rest of the community."

Dalits form a little under 17 per cent of Orissa's four crore population and are concentrated mostly in the coastal districts. Between 2009 and 2011, police lodged over 3,700 cases under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, according to data with the state SC/ST department.

In the western district of Bolangir, the houses of 50 families of Lathor village were burnt in January 2012 after a boy had reportedly "stolen" a shirt from the shop of an upper-caste owner. In Puri district, a Dalit was killed last year, allegedly by upper-caste villagers, after he refused to surrender land registered in his name. And in Kendrapara, a Dalit woman who cooked mid-day meals at a school committed suicide in November 2010, allegedly because of harassment by upper castes.

Price of refusal

In Ganjam and Puri districts, there are areas where a Dalit cannot enter temples, bathe in the same side of a pond as the upper castes, or share the village tubewell. Anyone who touches a Dalit is expected to bathe. If anyone raises his or her voice against these traditions, he or she is excommunicated.

In Goruala village of Puri, farmer Ramachandra Nayak and other Dalit families challenged a tradition. For years, Nayak, 62, and his forefathers had been beating drums outside the temple every evening, and at social functions of the upper castes, without being paid. In 2007, Nayak's son was late for the evening ritual and upper-caste Khandayats abused him. In protest, 13 of 30 Dalit families refused to beat drums any longer at such events. "All along we were doing it, but could we be forced to do something for free?" says Nayak.

In the retribution that followed, the 13 families were attacked and their women allegedly dragged by the hair. For 15 days, the Dalit families went hungry as those of the upper caste would not allow them to go out of the village or use the tubewell.

Five years on, the 13 families remain excommunicated. "They don't talk to us; the local PDS shop does not give us our rice. After the local administration intervened, we have been getting PDS rice from another gram panchayat," says Nayak. "We can't even till our own land. The upper-caste people say that is the punishment for not following tradition."

Villagers won't even buy the coconuts from Nayak's grove. "We have to travel long distances to sell them."

Today, the upper castes do allow the Dalits to use the village tubewell, but with riders. "We have to stand aside if upper-caste women are filling their vessels," says Sundari Bhoi. "Only after they are through can we dare to go near the tubewell."

The village still sees skirmishes. Ramachandra's neighbour Markanda Nayak alleges that a few weeks ago, some upper caste people had tried to torch his thatched house. "They came at night and threw kerosene bottle over the thatched roof and then tried to burn it. My neighbour alerted us and we all came out alive," says Markanda, whose son Bhajaman is hearing-challenged.

The upper castes justify the discrimination. "The problem started when they refused to beat drums before the goddess. Why should they not beat drums when they are living on the temple land?" says Buddhanath Parida, a leader of the Khandayats.

New, assertive Dalit

History professor Basant Kumar Mallick of Utkal University says increased Dalit assertiveness over the last decade has led to an increase in atrocities against them, too. "Though the older generation of Dalits was content obeying the diktats of the upper castes, the new generation wants to question these practices. So cases of caste prejudice and torture are coming out," he says. "Besides, the upper caste people think the Dalits are usurping their jobs in government."

On August 28, 2010, Dalit girl Bandana Bhoi of Ranapada village, Puri, and two of her friends broke tradition and entered the Kalika temple at Nuapada. "I told her not to, but she argued that we too are Hindus like the upper castes," says Prabhakar Bhoi, her father. Over the next few weeks, upper-caste residents of Nuapada and other villages assaulted several Dalits of Ranapada, besides imposing a penalty of Rs 50,000 on 100-odd families for "desecrating" the temple.

In June 201, National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairperson P L Punia visited the village but was not allowed to enter the temple. He pointed out that denying Dalits entry was an offence with strict punishments involved. They said it was a tradition from their forefathers' time.

Two-and-a-half years later, the barriers remain. "No Dalit will be allowed beyond the marked area," says Chaitan Swain, a village elder of Nuapada.

In Naveen Patnaik's constituency of Hinjilicut of Ganjam district, 30 washermen families in Thuruburei village had asserted themselves. Till 2008, they had been washing the clothes of upper caste villagers for an annual fee of Rs 20. Then one of them demanded more.

"My mother had died and I asked for Rs 50," says Gobardhan Sethi, who washed clothes for 30 households. "Saiba Lenka started abusing me."

As Dalits insisted on Rs 50, the upper castes blocked them from the tubewell, shops and the temple. After the local administration intervened, they allowed use of the tubewell, but the Dalits who had demanded higher payment still can't enter the Shiva temple.

In 2001, some barbers of Puri district refused to follow a tradition of washing the feet of upper caste people at weddings. The Khandayats excommunicated them in several villages, sometimes beating them up. Dalit activist Baghambar Pattanaik took the battle to court and the National Human Rights Commission, which in 2011 declared the practice akin to bonded labour and made it illegal.

"For the upper castes, a Dalit or a OBC is no more than a bonded labourer and they treat him like one. Any sort of protest is swiftly crushed," says Pattanaik. He also cites the bartan system, under which upper caste families would give 15 kg paddy annually to each unmarried man of the lower castes in exchange for service.

Hunt for solutions

The government plans to get NGOs in 16 of the 30 districts so that they can try and raise awareness about Dalit rights. "It's difficult to change such practices through police enforcement alone. The mindset has to change," says SC/ST department secretary Santosh Sarangi. "We are now trying to include chapters on untouchability and caste prejudice in school textbooks."

Activists say more needs to be done. On paper, the government has 55 special courts to try cases of atrocities against Dalits, but in practice it is existing district and sessions courts that have been declared special courts, and these are already overburdened with cases.

In Balichhai, a few partly demolished houses serve a reminder of those who have fled. Two Dalit families remain, ever fearful. "We have to live within our limits," says Sushma Patra. "We are lower caste. We are untouchable. That is the truth."

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