Endless grapple for a fistful of self-respect in A.P’s Venkatayapalem village Premium

Injustice, discrimination, and a fight for justice in a Dalit village - a story of resilience and struggle.

Twenty-two-year-old Challapudi Pattabhi Ramayya, was a degree student who dreamed of pursuing Law when one day, he, along with his friends in his village was falsely accused of eve-teasing and sent to jail.

The student belonging to a Scheduled Caste (SC) got out on bail soon after but his dream to become a lawyer got locked up forever in the abyss of discrimination.

Today, 51-year-old Pattabhi is a daily wager, living in a one-room house in Dalita Peta, a Scheduled Castes (SC) colony of Venkatayapalem village in Ramachandrapuram mandal of the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema district in Andhra Pradesh.

Pointing at the tall bungalow next to his house in Dalita Peta, unwilling to look at it, he begins to talk about his upper caste neighbours. In a low fearless voice, the broad-shouldered man says, “Here, this is where Accused Number 8 lives. He used to watch over us constantly.”

Walking further, he shows a small grey rectangular house with two bright blue doors which are locked at the moment. “This is where G1, Koti Chinnaraju, used to live,” he says, with a chuckle. While ‘A’ stands for ‘Accused’, ‘G’ stands for ‘Gundodu’ (loosely translated to ‘bald guy’).

Further down the lane is a dilapidated school building “This is where our story begins,” he says. The chatter of children coming from the school, with a strength of 29 students, all belonging to SCs, fills the air.

He was referring to the Venkatayapalem Dalit tonsuring incident of 1996. Despite the all-consuming legal and social battles for justice, Pattabhi seems to have learnt to cope with his pain with a dark sense of humour.