VELLORE: Denied the
right of way to their crematorium located on the banks of the Palar river
through land strips allegedly encroached by two non-dalits, dalit villagers of Narayanapuram
near Vanniyambadi have been forced to lower their dead using cradles from atop
a 20-ft-high bridge for the past
four years.
A video of a dalit man's body being lowered to the riverbank for cremation went viral on social media on Wednesday.
Kuppan, 55, of
Narayanapuram dalit colony, died in a road accident last Friday.
The postmortem was completed and the body was handed over to his family on
Saturday.
Kuppan is survived by his wife Kasthuri, 49, and their children -- Kavitha, 31,
Dinesh, 28, and Kannadasan, 26.
"Due to lack of space in the village crematorium, we have been cremating our
dead on the banks of the Palar river for the last four years, " said Krishnan,
49, a dalit.
After the construction of the Arasalanthapuram-Narayanapuram bridge across the
river, members of other castes have encroached upon the path leading to the
river and denied dalits permission to carry their dead through their farmlands.
"As we have been denied entry, we are using 'cradles' to lower the bodies from
the bridge. Over the past four years, we cremated four bodies using such
cradles. Kuppan was the latest," Krishnan said.
Though the dalits said they didn't face any direct threat from other caste
groups, they blamed the district administration for their troubles.
Vellore collector
assures of appropriate action
Vijay, 21, nephew of Kuppan, said, "On Saturday, when we tried to take my
uncle's body through the land strips, watchmen guarding it refused us entry.
Fearing a clash, villagers used a cradle to drop the body from the bridge and
cremated it."
Vijay, another resident who denied any ill-treatment or discrimination by the
other castes or land owners, demanded administration's intervention to remove
the encroachments.
When contacted, Vellore collector A Shanmuga Sundram said a revenue team was
probing the issue and appropriate action would be taken.
Source: Times of India
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