-Deccan Chronicle
For love, they had to give up their lands. Nine years ago, two dalit brothers – Sakthivel and Andvan from Erode, had fallen in love with caste Hindu girls and eloped with them.
The two couples are now happily married, but they had to ‘sacrifice’ their 12-acre land in their native village Ottanchathiram, that has been usurped by the caste Hindus.
And since they value their lives more than their land, they have not tried to return to the village to reclaim their property.
This is just one among many tragic stories that were told by Dalit participants at a recently organised meeting in Madurai.
The forum for dalit victims of land rights violation organised by ‘Evidence’, an NGO was well attended by prominent activists and lawyers. The victims appealed to the government to enact a legislation to safeguard the lands belonging to dalits and protecting pan human lands as well.
“It is shocking to hear that the lands of the dalits, bought with the sweat and blood of hard labour are being forcefully taken away from them,” said Mr Krishnasamy, income-tax commissioner, speaking at the forum. He also lamented that ‘caste Hindus’ were exploiting the illiteracy of the dalits.
Mr Kadhir revealed that 1,84,148 acres of panchami lands had been encroached across the state, despite seven Acts being in force to protect such lands from land grabbers.
The forum also passed a resolution seeking a separate legislation for protection of lands belonging to dalits and also sought the effective functioning of the panchami land commissionarate. Retired IAS officer P.Sivakami was among the participants of the forum.