Gollarahatti: Ready, but difficult to embrace change

The dwellers of Pemmanahalli Gollarahatti in Pavagada taluk of Tumakuru district are yet to come to terms with the sudden limelight on them, for the absolutely wrong reason. They are confused about the turn of events after the Monday’s incident at the settlement when A Narayanaswamy, the Lok Sabha member from Chitradurga (SC Reserved) constituency was not allowed inside the Gollarahatti as he is a Dalit.

After reports of the BJP lawmaker being “restrained” from entering the settlement created a storm, top officials from the district administration have been frequenting this backward settlement of the Kaadu Golla community to make its dwellers aware of the consequences of their action and also to convince them to give up such practices.

While local residents seem to be ready to embrace change and, it may take some time. “That’s a custom here. It’s difficult to change. However, if someone insists, we will give in,” chief priest of the community Iramuddappa Pujarappa told DH on Wednesday. Pujarappa is one of the customary heads of the settlement.

A woman from the middle of a group said: “The Constitution says everyone is equal, we will face six years of imprisonment if we discriminate someone because of caste.” She was part of the group that had was just dispersing after the district officials spoke at length to the residents about the need to change with times.

Some residents said that they were not so happy about what had happened at the settlement on Monday. “It is not that we did not allow the MP...he himself restrained from entering the hatti....we didn’t had prior information about his visit,” a woman said.

After two days, now they have started seeing the brighter side of the controversy. Around 50 houses in their settlement are in a dilapidated condition. Local infrastructure is bad.

“We will invite the MP and take him around the hatti and also felicitate him. We hope we will get some aid from the government to improve our lives,” said N Dasanna, a resident and former gram panchayat president.

People here say that illiteracy, unemployment and poverty have made them to still follow age-old customs. A youth commented, “It’s good to see that we are heralding a new beginning. However, many other communities also practice caste discrimination. Hope they will also embrace change like us.”

Narayanaswamy, who had also served as Social Welfare minister in the previous BJP government led by Jagadish Shettar, has appealed for a collective effort to end the practice of caste discrimination.

“The government, the mutts, nonprofits and officials should join hands against this. Let them sit in these villages and win people’s hearts,” the MP had said reacting to the incident.

Around 5.30 pm on Monday, Narayanaswamy had gone to Gollarahatti along with four doctors of Narayana Hrudayalaya and two persons from Biocon, Bengaluru to discuss development of the settlement under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) schemes.