For years the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are facing caste discrimination in the country. However, caste discrimination is taking place when it comes to conducting funerals of those in Kerala.
Reportedly, seven months ago, the body of a woman belonging to the scheduled caste community in Attapadi, was not allowed to be buried at the public crematorium in Puthur panchayat. Her body had to be cremated in the forest area after the public crematorium keeper refused to cremate her fearing the wrath people from upper caste community.
The Puthur panchayat is under the Left Democratic Front (LDF) governance and, the panchayat president is a CPI leader. Following this report, the SC/ST Commission directed the Palakkad district collector to look into the incident report back to the Commission.
Kerala Minister for SC/ST AK Balan said necessary action will be taken once the collector files the report. “I got to know about the unfortunate incident. The SC/ST commission has already directed the Palakkad district collector to look into the matter and submit a report on it. We will take necessary action once we receive the report,” he told a news agency.
Earlier, SC/ ST communities used to conduct funeral rituals in forest areas. But lately, the forest department has banned people from conducting funeral rituals in forests. Therefore, people from these communities have no other option but to head to a public crematorium for funerals.
It is quite ironic that such an incident took place under the governance of the LDF, a party which is known to follow a progressive ideology.
