A lower-caste Dalit couple in India attempted suicide after police beat them and destroyed their crops, triggering calls on Thursday for an end to evictions of poor minorities.
An online video showing about half a dozen police officers dragging and beating the couple with sticks to evict them from government-owned land in Madhya Pradesh has been viewed more than 1 million times since it was published on Tuesday.
The couple inhaled pesticide moments after the eviction and were rushed to a hospital, S. Vishwanath, head of the local administration, told a press conference on Wednesday, hours before he and the police chief were removed from their posts.
“To force a couple to attempt suicide by damaging their crops ... is most cruel and shameful,” said former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kumari Mayawati, who is a Dalit. “Nationwide condemnation of the incident is natural. Government should take strict action,” she wrote on Twitter.
Government and senior police officials were not immediately available for comment.
The eviction was part of an initiative to stop encroachment on land. The area the couple was farming on had been allotted for the construction of a college, said a policeman, who declined to be named, as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Six police officers were suspended on Thursday and the state government has ordered an investigation into the incident.
India in 1955 banned discrimination based on caste — a system that divided Hindus into groups based on occupations — but biases against lower-caste groups persist, making it harder for them to access education, jobs and homes.
A growing population and rising pressure on land to build homes, highways and industry is triggering conflicts, with people of lower castes often facing eviction, particularly in rural areas where biases are most entrenched, Dalit campaigners say.
More than half of India’s lower-caste population is landless, according to census data.
Several states have legislation aimed at giving land to Dalits, but few have produced results, according to Dalit activists and leaders.
“They were begging the police to not destroy their crops as they were in debt ... but the police did not listen to them,” N. Kumar, a neighbor of the couple, told reporters by telephone from Nankhedi village.
He said the couple had asked police to wait two months and allow them to harvest their crops before leaving.
Ram Prakash Sharma, a tribal and Dalits’ rights activist in Madhya Pradesh, described the incident as “unfortunate” and urged authorities to do more to help the couple.
“The Dalits in Madhya Pradesh are one of the most backward people and they do not own farming land,” Sharma said.
“The government must provide this couple a house and employment so that they can feed their kids and not die of starvation,” he added.
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