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India is known all over the world for its rich culture and traditions, but social evils are still shaming humanity. One such case came to light in Chapod village of Paundi Gram Panchayat of Patan police station area of Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, where the funeral of an elderly person was stopped for 24 hours due to caste discrimination. After this, the funeral of the elderly took place in the presence of police and district administration.
Shivkumar Chaudhary of Chapod village, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste, died on March 25. After his death, the family and villagers decided that his last rites would be performed at Muktidham located outside the village, but when they reached there with the dead body, some bullies of the village opposed them and stopped them from performing the last rites. The bullies who were protesting said that there is crop in their fields around Muktidham and the crop may get spoiled due to the crowd gathering there due to the funeral.
Angry people protested
Angry with this incident, the family of the deceased and other people of Scheduled Caste protested against it and lodged a complaint with the local administration. After receiving the complaint, the local Tehsildar and police reached the spot, but the problem could not be solved immediately. The next day, the last rites were performed in the presence of police and district administration. After this incident, the demand for a public Muktidham has intensified in the village.
People demanded the construction of Muktidham from the Collector
Scheduled caste people say that such problems have come up many times during the last rites, but the administration has not paid attention to it till now. Enraged by this incident, the members of Ravidas Samaj met Collector Deepak Saxena and handed over a memorandum demanding immediate construction of Muktidham in the village. The collector immediately instructed the Tehsildar to identify a place for Muktidham on government land in the village so that such problems are not faced in future.
‘Last rites not allowed to be performed with respect’
This incident is not only an example of caste discrimination, but also shows the indifference of the administration. On one hand, while the country is progressing technologically and economically, on the other hand, discrimination is still being done in the society on the basis of caste even in last rites. In the whole matter, the relatives of the deceased say that we wanted to perform the last rites of our family member with respect, but we were stopped.
Public Muktidham
This was very painful for us. Along with this, Rohitas, an antar of Ravidas Samaj, said that we have demanded from the collector that a public Muktidham be built in the village as soon as possible, so that such incidents do not happen in future. This incident of Chapod village raises a big question for both the administration and the society. Caste discrimination in such an important task as funeral not only weakens the social fabric, but also shows that there is still a long way to go on the path of equality. Now it remains to be seen how quickly the administration fulfills the demand of building Muktidham.
