Meet Krishnappa Vaddar’s family at Kiravatti village in Sirsi taluk. He has five children, and one among them is physically challenged Anitha.
The family is dependent on three acres and nine gunta paddy field and two acres of coconut plantation. Everyday, Krishnappa, his wife Savitri and his sister Lakshmi plough the fields manually. Modern technology might have replaced the bullocks in agriculture, but for poor Krishnappa, they have replaced the bullocks!
The sight of the three with the yoke fastened on them and ploughing the fields could make any person turn away. Such is the plight of the family that now it has got used to this inhuman system for the last five years. Unfortunately, for Krishnappa, his paddy field is surrounded by a property belonging to another another person Ningappa Doddamani, of the same village. This has proved to be a main obstacle since Krishnappa cannot enter his fields, unless he crosses this property. Since, his neighbour was not co-operative in this regard, Krishnappa had to move the court.
The dispute was settled in the Lok Adalat on November 8, 2000. According to the verdict, from November to May, Ningappa Doddamani should leave a 4 feet width path in his field for Krishnappa to cross and later, this path would be converted to 1.5 feet width only.
And now, the verdict has became a bane to Krishnappa, as movement through this narrow path has became troublesome.
It is impossible to take the bullocks to the field and in order to avoid further hassles with anybody, Krishnappa and his family members are ploughing the land manually.

HIGHLIGHTS
Krishnappa’s family is the only in the village, belonging to Vaddar community. They are living in the village for the last 70 years. No work is given to the family by the other village members. If it has to seek work it should go the nearby villages.
The family was ostracised in the year 1997-98. An amount of Rs 250 is fined, if anybody was caught talking to them, revealed Krishnappa painfully. Till today, the condition has not changed much, he added.