School-Working Dalit Woman Attacked For Sitting On Chair

44-year-old Pallaviben Jadav, a Dalit woman, was attacked by a mob for sitting on a chair at a school in a village in Ahmedabad district, Gujarat, according to reports.

Accused was angry on seeing the woman sit on chair

The incident took place at Valthera village two days ago. Pallaviben works at an anganwadi, a government-run nursery school. She was assigned the task of distributing Aadhaar cards.

Gujarat: Dalit Woman, A School Worker, Attacked For ‘Sitting On Chair’https://t.co/WYM2xrILDB pic.twitter.com/hh4xJKAUya

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As per the FIR registered at Kath police station, Jayraj Vegad, a local resident, was enraged on seeing Pallaviben sitting on a chair while doing her work. He asked her, "Being a Dalit how she dared to sit on a chair". He kicked the chair, that led her to fall. This was mentioned in the complaint lodged by Pallaviben’s husband Ganpat Jadav.

Later in the evening, Vegad, along with 25 other people, barged into the woman’s house and attacked her. The mob also attacked her husband and some other family members with sticks and sharp weapons. Kath police registered a case under IPC sections related to attempt to murder and dacoity, and also under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Violence on the Dalit family

The accused belong to the Karadia Rajput community which falls in the OBC category, police said. “It was also alleged that the accused snatched away Pallaviben’s mangalsutra. The accused also allegedly tried to set one of Jadav’s relatives on fire,” said P D Manvar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, SC/ST Cell, Ahmedabad.

Manvar, who is investigating the case, said three persons were arrested until now. Bharat Vegad, one of the accused named in the FIR, later filed a complaint against Pallaviben and her husband. Vegad complained that it was the couple and their relatives who attacked him and others.

In our country, caste-based atrocities being inflicted on women is not unheard of. Last year, in one such instance, in Uttar Pradesh’s Khetalpur Bhansoli village in Bulandshahr district, an upper caste woman and her son mercilessly beat an eight-months pregnant Dalit woman for touching her bucket and defiling it. Six days later, both Savitri, the Dalit woman, and her unborn ‘son’ were dead. The post-mortem report stated “antemortem head injury” as the cause of her death.

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Bhawana is an intern with SheThePeople.TV