Letter from India: In flood lands of India, caste prejudices thrive
NEW DELHI: A bleak postscript to the misery of millions affected by catastrophic flooding this year in Bihar State came last week with the story of an upper-caste police officer accused of drowning two lower-caste girls in the river after they stole firewood from his orchard.
Dry tinder has become a precious commodity in Bihar, vital to survival in the damp post-flood period. According to a villager who complained to the police, when the police officer found Chandani Kumari, 6, and Kamali Kumari, 13, taking wood from his property, he threw them into a fast-moving river. Neither of the girls could swim.
The officer was suspended and a compensation payment of 100,000 rupees, or $2,400, was given to the girls' parents, S.L. Das, the local police superintendent, said, adding that he believed the girls were chased, not thrown, into the river.
For human rights activists in India, this is a horrifying illustration of a widely accepted truth. When communities are in trouble, caste prejudice deepens.
Aid agencies have noted that in Bihar, just as during previous natural disasters in India, even the distribution of aid makes its way more swiftly to the powerful upper-caste sections of society than to the groups known officially as Scheduled and Backward Castes.
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