Driven out of village two decades ago, Dalit families make fresh bid to return home in Odisha 

A delegation of Dalit families seek police intervention for their smooth return

Twenty-two years after they were banished from their home village, Balichhai, in Odisha’s Ganjam district, 40-year-old Laxmi Naik, finds it difficult to forget her late husband, Jagabandhu Naik’s regret. Driven out by upper caste neighbours, he died without ever being able to go back home. Today, their four children have no idea of what their ancestral village even looks like.

The Naiks are not alone in their banishment. In February 2020, there was a small altercation at a grocery shop in Balichhai. Frequent quarrels between the Dalits and the upper caste people have been a regular feature. “For the next couple of months, we had confined ourselves to our houses. On August 12, we were attacked and our houses ransacked, leaving no option for us but to flee,” said Ms Naik, whose family sought shelter at her mother’s house, about 70 km away.

The hopes of returning to native land after two decades for Naiks were rekindled when a group of dalit families accompanied by social activists mustered courage and sought intervention of Satyabrata Bhoi, Inspector General of Police (southern range) on Wednesday.

Ganapati Naik, another Dalit villager who refused to disclose his location fearing backlash even after two decades, said, “We have taken the help of the police, district administration, National Human Rights Commission, and Orissa High Court.

The district administration mediated, reconciliation meetings were held and a police outpost was established in the village. All efforts, however, proved meaningless in front of obstinate upper caste families.” Up to 300 upper caste families had decided they didn’t want Dalits in the village.

But, Bhagaban Gouda of Balichhai, has a contrarian view. “There has been absolute peace in our village for the past 22 years. We are not against the return of the Dalits. But, they must withdraw the cases registered against us under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. They should be settled at least 1 kilometer away from the village. They should be asked to pay all legal expenses incurred by us,” he said. Mr. Gouda was sentenced to undergo six years of imprisonment and has challenged the lower court verdict in the High Court.

In the meantime, a generation has grown up outside their village. The date palms they once tapped for neera have grown dense, and Mr. Ganapati claims that about 40 acres of agricultural land belonging to Dalit families have turned into grasslands. These Dalit families are now scattered in different districts of Odisha and outside.