(Investigation Report by the Stree Jagrati, Mangalore)
The alleged rape and murder of a Dalit girl in a government hostel at Puttur, South Kanara, (Karnataka) is one of the most brutal manifestations of the exploitation of low caste women. Her death is hushed up by the police as a case of suicide.
Sita hailed from Konke, Balnad village, of Puttur taluk. She was staying at the Government Hostel for SCs & STs girls at Haradi, near Puttur Sita’s letters to her family give an idea of some of the happenings in the hostel. In her letters, she has mentioned that the warden, Smt. Shambhavi Rao, and the Social Welfare Inspector would sleep on the same bed and that Sita had to do their work. On 5-3-81 at 10 A.M. there persons came to Sita’s parent’s house to inform them that Sita was missing from 5 A.M. that morning. Next day her body was found in a public well close to the hostel. The dead girl had only a skirt on. A slap mark was seen on the right side of her face. The father of Sita was not allowed to touch the body. It was taken to the girl’s house for the mother to have a glance and was cremated immediately. Inquest was not conducted on the spot, but later on in the hospital when the postmortem examination was done. After the body was taken out of the well, Sita’s father was summoned inside the hostel by the warden. Here, along with two kitchen maids of the hostel, the warden tried to force him to give his thumb impression on a paper. But, he refused to do so.
The facts are Sita was summoned at 9 PM. on the 4th night by the warden accompanied by the Social Welfare Inspector. Soon a cry was heard and the girls noticed Sita’s body lying in a pool of blood. The body was kept in the hostel on that night and the whole of next day On the 5th midnight, the girls saw a heavy object being carried out of the hostel.
The hostel warden is known to be using hostel girls for prostitution. The men who visit these girls are known to be high government officials from Puttur, Mangalore and surrounding areas. On Sept. 1, 1980 the Marathi Sangha filed a case against the illegal, immoral activities of warden to the Deputy Commissioner, Mangalore.
The high caste Hindu officials do not mind sleeping with untouchable girls. Sex has no caste, you know.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Dalit Action Committee has demanded the dismissal of both the warden and the S.W. Inspector.
