Police Escort for Patrons at New Hair Salon
The Police were present at the opening of the new salon in Velunganandhal, an Indian village where a simple haircut had become a symbol of equality for Dalit youth. Just a few months ago, Dalits were not allowed to enter the salons used by patrons from the Gounder’s upper caste, so the villagers had to travel regularly in order to get their grooming services.
Gounders, who were considered a backward caste by the Brahmin in turn looked at Dalits as untouchables in the age-long Indian scheduled tribes and caste system. Hence Gounders owned most of the agricultural land and relegated the Dalits to live in a separate area earmarked for them – far away from the shops and commercial hub of the village. The Dalit community took the discrimination in their stride, with the older generation travelling up to 50 kilometres for services at the nearest hair salon that would attend to them but the younger generation drew the line. Youths wishing to look trendy and fashionable wanted a change. “When upper caste youths can trim their hair once a week in the latest fashion, an ordinary haircut for us is a very expensive and time-consuming process”, they complained. “See how we look. Will any girl look at us?” complained Kathiravan, a Dalit in his early twenties. “Why should we be forced to go to the town for a haircut? Why are we inferior?” asked Natarajan, another youth who had just joined a diploma course in a polytechnic. The older generation thought nothing of it, as illustrated by 70-year-old Kaayaamboo: “Is haircut a very big issue, so as to pick a quarrel with upper caste people and earn their wrath?” he said. “Cinema has spoiled our youth very much”, he lamented. Cinema culture and the desire to look like their movie stars caused the youth to review their status, who concluded that being restricted from getting a haircut in their own village was glaring evidence of denial of self-respect.
A couple of months earlier in Jodhpur district, the Rajasthan Human Rights Commission directed officials to prevent crimes relating to “untouchability” from occurring in future, after Dalit youth S. Gurusamy lodged a written complaint about an incident in which he was refused a haircut by a barber. Realizing the business owners could not be forced to serve the Dalits as well, authorities decided to establish facilities that would serve everyone. Hence it was a happy day indeed for the Dalits of Irunjchirai village in Virudhunagar when they got a salon and laundry service that would serve them. No one was happier than Mr Gurusamy who was a proud man indeed to get the service of a hairdresser at his village for the first time. “I have a feeling of having achieved independence (for our people). I am happy with the action taken by the officials. I wish things changed here for the better in future,” said Mr Gurusamy.
Present at the opening ceremony for the facilities in February were Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) A. Ganesan, village leaders and the police. With Dalits no longer needing to travel 7 to 15 km for services, Mr Ganesan hoped that Irunjchirai could become an example of social equality for other regions.
More stories of the Dalit journey to equality @ http://bit.ly/9fz3Xr, http://bit.ly/9jdUBr
