A separate borewell has been set up for Dalits stopped from accessing public well in a village in Madhya Pradesh
At a village in Madhya Pradesh, over 200 dalit or underprivileged villagers are not allowed by other families to drink water from a public bore-well. The state administration's solution was to construct a separate well just for the lower caste families.
Separate bore-wells, say Dalits, will only deepen the divide in a village that seems to follow caste-based discrimination long abolished in India.
"This is not the solution to the larger issue, which is the mindset of the people. Even we want to live a dignified life. The administration should work on changing the mindset of the people who call us untouchable," said Geeta Mandloi, a dalit villager.
For over a month, Geeta and other Dalits in this village in Alirajpur district were forced to drink water from a dirty well as they are considered "untouchable" by upper caste villagers. They were allegedly also beaten up if they used the public toilet.
Last week, they complained to the district collector. When their distress made media headlines, a separate bore-well was hurriedly constructed over the weekend. Officials say they could not convince the upper caste villagers to stop harassing the families.
"We immediately installed a second bore-well in the village to provide water to the dalits. Untouchability is a social evil. We will try to sensitize people through camps in the days to come," Sekhar Verma, a senior district official, told NDTV.
No action has been taken so far against those accused of beating the Dalits and forcing them to use dirty water.
The incident has provoked sharp political reactions.
"This is serious crime, if they are doing this. This is modern India and they cannot treat Dalits like this," said Sambit Patra, a spokesperson of the BJP, which rules Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress has targeted the BJP. "In Modi's rule atrocity on schedule castes and the ignorance of the problems of the schedule castes is the mantra of BJP. The incident that took place in Madhya Pradesh is inhuman," said party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.