OHRC glare on Dhenkanal ‘ostracism’ case after TOI report

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of the alleged ostracism of 40 SC families of Kantio Kateni village under Tumusingha police station in Dhankanal district over a trivial matter.
The rights panel took note of the incident after coming across the report, ‘40 SC families in Dhenkanal village face ‘ostracism’’ published in TOI on Friday.It urged the authorities to take steps against the persons responsible for the discriminatory tactics after due inquiry.
The commission, which passed the order on Friday and released a copy of it on Monday, said the SC families had been living in fear after people from the upper castes allegedly excommunicated them from the village. At the centre of the matter is a confrontation between the scheduled caste villagers and their upper caste neighbours over the plucking of flowers by a girl of the SC community on April 6.
Now the 40 families are barred from going to shops, share-cropping, doing work under MGNREGS, taking out processions, participating in social functions and accessing services in banks and Jan Seva Kendras.
“Social ostracism/boycott is an inhuman practice which requires serious attention and action by the state authorities,” said the commission and asked the Dhenkanal collector and SP to probe the matter and submit a report before the commission by September 15.