Dalit Intellectual Collective released a 17-page fact-finding report on the Vengavayal caste crime on Friday, February 3, suggesting that the government to take action against everyone involved in it. The report finds that the dispute between the two AIADMK party functionaries may have led to the mixing of human excreta with drinking water in the overhead water tank that was used by the Dalits in Vengavayal village, in the Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu.

Five Dalit children of the Vengavayal village in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukkottai district fell ill and were hospitalised on December 24.  The doctors who treated the children alerted the villagers regarding possible contamination of the water. To their great shock, they discovered that the drinking water source of the Dalit families had been contaminated with human excreta. The tank was cleaned with bleach on December 26, and pipe connections to the houses were replaced two weeks later.

Activists across the state demanded stringent action against the perpetrators of the inhuman act. The Dalit Intellectual Collective formed an 11-member committee to understand what led to this, and the committee consisting of faculty members, research scholars from different education institutes, and journalists, made a field visit and recorded the statements of the Dalit communities of Vengavayal on January 17. The fact-finding team found no prior dispute between intermediate castes and Dalits that may have led to this caste crime but mentioned several incidents and personal disputes which could be the cause of this incident.

Blame-Game

Vengavayal village falls under the Muthukadu panchayat in the Pudukottai district. Chidambaram, an AIADMK party functionary, has great support from the Vengavayal Dalits and was elected as Panchayat president of Muthukadu between 2006-2011. Chidambaram belongs to the Kallar community. Muthiah, who belongs to the Mutharaiyar community, was elected as Panchayat president in the 2011 elections. Now, his wife Padma is the president.

In the 2019 rural local elections, a relative of Chidambaram had contested against Muthiah’s wife Padma. Despite Padma being elected president, Muthiah thought that the Dalits of Vengavayal voted for Chidambaram’s relative. According to the report of the fact-finding team, many demands of the Dalit families in Vengavayal were largely neglected due to their close association with Chidambaram. In a Gram Sabha meeting on Gandhi Jayanti, the people of Vengavayal raised concerns over the funds allocated for their village, road facilities, and clean drinking water connections. But Muthiah, who was present in the meeting, allegedly did not pay heed and said, “I cannot accept your demands”.

Against this backdrop, the overhead community water tank used by the Dalits was contaminated with human excreta in the third week of December 2022. The fact-finding team suggests that either Chidambaram or Muthiah could have done this to tarnish the other. “In spite of having a good connection with Dalits in Vengavayal, Chidambaram refused to respond to our queries in all three attempts. He could’ve at least come forward and showed solidarity to those who were affected,” says Professor Lakshmanan, one of this fact-finding committee members, and the National Convenor of the Dalit Intellectual Collective.

Personal motive 

“All the fingers are pointed towards Muthiah. But when we approached him to record his response he said, we (Mutharaiyar) may not have a good rapport with the Dalits, but we don’t stoop so low to treat them this way,” Lakshmanan told TNM. Apart from the power tussle with Chidambaram, Muthiah has a personal dispute with a tank operator Shanmugam, who belongs to the Keezh Valaiyar (sub-caste of Mutharaiyar) community. Shanmugam, who operated a water tank in Vengavayal, tends to bring the issues the Dalits face to Muthiah. According to the report, Muthiah didn’t like Shanmugam’s affinity with the Dalits.

“Why are you worrying so much for those Pariahs when they can not have the water…They didn't vote for us, so just relax” – the report mentions that this was the response from Muthiah when Shanmugam informed him that the motor to the water tank was not working. Shanmugam and Muthiah maintained a good friendship until Shanmugam’s son fell in love with a woman who is a relative of Muthiah. Muthiah used his power to sack Shanmugam as the tank operator and replaced him with his own community members. But Shanmugam approached the Block Development Officer (BDO) and got a working order from him, which annoyed Muthiah. He lodged a complaint against Shanmugam, and Shanmugam sought help from the villagers of Vengavayal, following which they announced a protest against Muthiah. The report cites this as one of the factors which might have led to the caste crime so that a protest could be avoided.

Recommendations

The committee members condemned the district administration which distracted the issue and focused on the temple entry of the Dalits and the double tumbler system, instead of finding the perpetrators who mixed feces with drinking water. The committee members also condemned the silence of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the ruling party of the state, alleging that the  officials forced the Vengaval villagers to participate in the Samathuva Pongal, which was boycotted by Mutharaiyar and Agamudayar communities. The committee also made 20 other recommendations to the government of Tamil Nadu in this context.

The 11-member committee asks the government to take action, as well as pay compensation to the family members who admitted their kids to the hospital, incurring huge financial burden. The committee also recommends the government to give Rs 1,20,000 to each resident of the village as per the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 2015. It asks the government to put a white paper(an authoritative report produced or commissioned by a government agency or office) on what the Department of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare has done in the past 10 years. The committee also asks the government to sack all the members of the SC/ST commission as nobody from the commission visited Vengavayal since the incident came to light on December 24, 2022. The committee further demands that the government announce Vengavayal as the most atrocity-prone village, and give a compensation of Rs 10 lakhs to each family.

Watch: Pudukkottai water tank issue: Evidence Kathir slams TN police for harassing victims