In a horrifying incident, members of the Dalit community in Tamil Nadu found cow dung dumped into the locale’s primary source of drinking water. The incident took place in Gandarvakottai in Pudukkottai district on April 25. The incident came to light after several people from the community fell sick after drinking the water. Many children who had drank the water reported symptoms of illness such as diarrhoea and vomiting.
The overhead tank was a storage facility for potable drinking water for the local residents. The 10,000-litre capacity tank had been erected in a colony of the Sangam Viduthi Panchayat in 2014.
In the aftermath of the incident, as per the New Indian Express, the district administration organised a medical camp o at Guruvandan Street in Sangam Viduthi to help residents who reported feeling unwell after consuming contaminated water.
The area, as per reports, is mostly inhabited by members of the Adi Dravidar community. It houses about 35 Dalit families and five higher caste Hindu families. PMK (Pattali Makkal Katchi) Founder Doctor S Ramadoss said the contamination was inhumane. He has also called for urgent action on the issue.
An inspection was conducted by officials who were accompanied by Panchayat President Perumal, when Revenue Inspector Priyadharshini, and VAO Subha, Commissioner Periyasamy inspected the water source and confirmed the presence of cow dung. An investigation is to follow as the Commissioner had reportedly instructed officials to gather water samples for testing and initiate an investigation into the incident.
Assuring the local residents, the commissioner has promised strict action against those responsible for the contamination. Subsequently, as per reports there have been arrangements made to supply water from a neighbouring village’s reservoir to supply the affected communities with drinking water after the water tank was cleaned with bleach and not permitted to be used for storing drinking water.
As per The Hindu, senior medical official Aranthangi Depuy Director of Health Namasivayam had also visited the colony after the incident. According to a Times of India report, the village vice-president Shanthi Karthikeyan has urged the authorities to arrest the culprit at the soonest.
The incident is similar to the horrifying incident from December 2022 when the drinking water of local Dalit residents was contaminated with human faeces in Vengaiyvayal village of Tamil Nadu. The issue was discovered only after three children were hospitalised after they had drunk the contaminated water. The incident has rocked the state, with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin even commenting that the fact that the incident took place points toward the persistence of caste discrimination and untouchability in some pockets of society.
Untouchability seems to be firmly entrenched within society across India. Recently, Sabrang India covered how a Dalit boy from Rajasthan was beaten and his family was verbally abused after he accidentally touched the bucket of an upper caste man when he tried to go drink water from a hand pump. Thereby the question of purity and pollution continues to persist despite the legal abolition of untouchability in 1955. This notion of purity and pollution thereby continues to be a source of violence to the Dalits and also serves to prevent their access to basic amenities. For instance, Karnataka recently witnessed reports of Dalit residents of a colony asserting that they were denied water by the village administrators due to their caste.
Related:
Violence against Dalits continues as India gears for democratic festivities
Absent in Elections 2024: Dalits and the historic battle for land
Telangana: Christian cemetery attacked a week after Dalit Churchgoers were attacked