Atrocities by upper caste: Dalits begin fast unto death in Ahmedabad

As many as 16 Dalit men and 17 women accompanied by eight children have begun a fast unto death in front of the mamlatdar office of Detroj taluka of Ahmedabad district to seek police protection alleging they are not allowed to draw water from their village Gitapur and frequently attacked by members of the upper caste.

Today is the third day of their fast.

The victims of caste atrocity want cases to be filed against the aggressors under the provisions of the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe (prevention of atrocities) act.

“We have not been given proper housing as promised by the government and live in homes which have no electricity and water,” they complained to independent Dalit MLA Jignesh Mevani who visited them at the site of their fast on Thursday night.

"No one from the government has bothered to visit the fasting Dalits and listen to their grievances," Mevani said.

“This is the Gujarat model in which Dalits have to walk 1.5 km for water and are forced to undertake a fast to demand security and proper housing. Are they not citizens of India?” asked Mevani.

“The government is not granting residential plots to Dalits while members of other communities are being given homestead land,” alleged Kaushik Parmar, co-convenor of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch headed by Mevani.

Mevani has been campaigning, even before he was elected to the Gujarat assembly, for granting of land to the Dalits from out of the surplus land acquired under the land ceiling act.