Appakutti Magimai, India

I am Appakutti Magimai. I hail from a poor Dalit family in Arakkonam, a small village in the Vellure District of Tamil Nadu, in South India. I am a Coordinator with the Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement (TNDWM), a state forum which acts as a platform for Dalit women to address their rights. Being a Dalit woman, as well as a defender of the rights of Dalit women, I have faced several hardships and I have been harassed by police, politicians and members of the dominant caste. This testimony is a description of only one of the many tribulations that I underwent while upholding the rights of the Dalits.

Rangapuram is one of the small remote villages of the Tiruvallur district, in Tamil Nadu, where over 100 families live. The Dalits number only 25 families. Being landless, the Dalits have traditionally depended on the majority, non-Dalit caste for employment and for their survival. Taking advantage of this situation and the caste system, the non-Dalits make the Dalits to do menial jobs, while the non-Dalits treat them as untouchables and perpetrate atrocities against them. Their work is not adequately compensated, and they are paid very low wages. The Dalits have born these humiliations and sufferings in silence.

The village has a primary school, situated in a common place, to which the non-Dalits have easy access. The Dalit children have access to the school, the main road and the neighbourhood only through a pathway; that has been used by the Dalits for more than forty years.

The Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED) has motivated Dalits to organize themselves as one group. Enraged and infuriated by this movement, the non-Dalits have obstructed and closed the public pathway used by the Dalits, forcing them to walk extra miles in order to gain access to the services and the main road. For the little Dalit children it became extremely difficult, as they could not walk the long distance safely. Hence the children had to stay away from the school and their studies. The other caste people stopped employing Dalits in their fields, forcing women and elders to travel extra miles to find employment.

The Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement (TNDWM) challenged this action. The officials were approached and they convened negotiation meetings with the other caste people and the Dalits. There were three such negotiations but they failed to open the pathway. Since the officials were supporting the non-Dalits, the TNDWM accused the officials of discrimination and denying justice to the Dalits.

Immediately the TNDWM formed a delegation under my leadership, consisting of 7 members, 8 Dalit women, 5 children and from the village. The delegation was to meet the President of India who was visiting the near by town Kancheepuram. On our way to Kancheepuram the police detained us. I and other women were stripped of our clothes in the presence of male police. We were made sit in front of everybody in the police station with only our inner garments on. The whole night we had no food, water or sleep.

I was severely beaten by the police. The male police officers ridiculed my body, shamed and humiliated me. I bore the suffering for the cause of the Dalit women.

Later, we approached the Human Rights Commission and the SC/ST Commission and pleaded for justice. Thanks to their intervention the inspector of police involved was temporarily suspended. The representative for the district was asked to pursue the issue of the pathway through Rangapuram village. As a result, the land where the pathway is has been acquired by the government and the process of building a new, permanent road is underway.

Though, our struggle has borne fruit, but I cannot forget the price that I and other defenders had to pay.