5 families in Telangana village ostracised by own community for ‘questioning elders’

Five families were ostracized for nearly a month in Khammam district, Telangana, after the elders of the Madiga community passed an order. Five people accused the community elders of swindling funds that were collected for the community’s Dasara celebrations.

G Sridhar, K Venkateswarlu, K Srinivas Rao, K Suresh and V Praveen Kumar and their families are residents of Shanti Nagar in Kallur Mandal. The elders of the community reportedly held a kabaddi competition on the day of the festival, and were infuriated when the victims questioned the expenditure. The organizers of the festival showed them the accounts, and then passed an order that boycotted everyone from talking to them and visiting their homes. They were ostracized for 28 days.

Though the victims wanted to approach the police, one of the village elders promised them that the issue would be resolved amicably. Since he had failed to convince the elders to revoke the boycott, the victims approached the police on Monday.

Speaking to TNM, Kallur Inspector Pavan Kumar said that the five members were politically active and always differed with the archaic ideas of the elders.

“The victims approached us two days ago to file a case against 17 members, who passed the orders. We later tried to resolve the issue amicably by calling both the parties. After counselling the elders, they apologised to the victims. However, the youth insisted that they offer the apology in public. So, a public gathering was held in the presence of Tahsildar and RDO to settle the dispute,” he said.

He added that no FIR was filed in this regard.

The boycott ended on Tuesday after the intervention of local police and district administration, who took an undertaking from the victims and the community elders of maintaining peace in the village and maintain a cordial relationship with each other.

“After learning about the issue, we held a public gathering along with police and counselled both the parties. We even took an undertaking from them. Now, the village is peaceful,” Kallur Tahsildar D Nagu Bhai said.