No right to pray: 130 Dalit households in Bengal fight an uneven battle to reach out to God
West Bengal's Purba Bardhaman district are pinning their final hopes on police and district administration to end a caste-based discriminatory tradition of three centuries and receive their Constitutionally-guaranteed right to worship their God.
The families at Daspara area of Gidhgram village, all having 'Das' surnames and belonging to the traditional community of cobblers and weavers, have allegedly been forced to stay away from the steps of Gidheswar Shiv temple, the only place of worship in the locality, by the shrine committee and other villagers on grounds that they belong to a «low caste», victims alleged.
At their wits' end, victims at the receiving end of this discrimination now plan to take «the fight to the end» and even seek legal recourse if the state administration fails to resolve the crisis.
The discriminatory practice almost unheard in modern Bengal and violative of Article 25 of the Constitution which guarantees equal freedom of citizens to worship as a fundamental right has reportedly been in vogue ever since the temple was founded some 300 years ago, locals claimed.
Recent interventions from police and administration in the presence of two MLAs to facilitate the entry of Das families to pray at the temple during Shivratri on February 26 and an on-paper truce agreement between the two opposing communities have failed to break ice.
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