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When Pachigalla Mary completed narrating her tale of sexual and physical abuse at a public hearing in Bangalore on 3 July 2006, there was complete silence in the room and tears in the eyes of jury members and the audience. In a heart-wrenching narration, the 28-year-old woman, hailing from Vuyyuru in Andhra Pradesh, spoke of how she was drugged and raped by four persons in the presence of her daughter. Her body was branded with hot metal. At one point, she broke down and cried. The audience, many of whom themselves had gone through considerable hardship, pacified her. The perpetrators of the abuse have not yet been caught. The plight of Mary and five other Dalits were heard at a public hearing on `Dalit Human Rights Violation' organised by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR). The two-day public hearing took notice of 69 cases of atrocities committed against Dalits in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. The jury comprised nine members: Chairperson of the State Women's Commission of Andhra Pradesh Mary Ravindranath; retired district and sessions judge of Karnataka J Chandrashekeriah; advocate of the Kerala High Court Prameela; senior advocate of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh Bojja Tarakam; member of the Pondicherry SC/ST Commission MS Kaliaperumal; professor of Bangalore University Samathadeshmi; senior advocate of the High Court of Karnataka Ravi Varma Kumar; former judge Samydurai and former member of the National SC/ST Commission C Chellappan. It was for the jury to decide on what course of action could be taken to expedite the process. "We will make sure that justice is meted out to these people," said Mary Ravindranath. "We will either take up the case with the district authorities or write to the State and National Human Rights Commission informing them about these atrocities." NCDHR has recorded more than 300 crimes against Dalits in the past two years. It conducted a public hearing in Patna on 8 May 2006 to bring to light atrocities committed against Dalits in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. (Source: The Hindu)
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