Dalit owned Fair Price Shop Boycotted in Gujarat, Owner attempts Suicide

Ahemdabad— Denying ration to a person from Thakor Community due to invalid coupon proved costly to a Dalit owner of the fair price shop as the villagers boycotted him, resulting in a order by the district collector, who transferred the 436 ration cards to neighbouring village. The incident relates to Kanosan village in the Saraswati tehsil of Patan District.

The orders came after majority of the ration card holders in the Thakor dominated village had stopped buying ration from the FPS run by Kanti Parmar, who belongs to Dalit community.

Speaking to The Mooknayak Mukesh kumar Parmar, the son of Kanti Parmar, the Dalit owner of Fair Price Shop said that the ration card of some individuals belonging to Thakor community were invalid and therefore we denied them the ration. Aggrieved by this, they collected the ration card of all the villagers and passed a therav (resolution) against our shop. The resolution had signatures of people long dead.

Boycott by the Villagers Pushed Parmar to Attempt Suicide

He added that the Thakor community people of the village brought the ration from the neighboring villages and sold it to the ration card holders of the village. My father complained against this practice as it was illegal, but no action was taken. This unfair act broke my father financially and he attempted suicide at Gandhi Bagh in Patan by consuming a poisonous substance. Thankfully, he survived but his leg had to be amputated because of the venomous impact the substance caused.

Mukesh filed a police complaint against four persons belonging to the Thakor community for pushing his father to commit suicide by persuading villagers to boycott the shop.

“The four accused Prakashji Thakor, Genaji Thakor, Lakhsmanji Thakor and Jaktaji Thakor were arrested but later released on bail on the condition that the victims should not be harmed in any way. But they nevertheless continued to harm us by getting ration from the neighbouring villages and selling it in our village to ration card holder. They persuaded the villagers, majority of them thakors that we should not buy anything from these Dalits as we are superior to them. “he said.

Later, the District collector Arvind Vijayan in an order dated September 12 transferred the 436 ration card holders of the village to neighbouring village which enabled them to buy ration from the village of Edla.

The Order Escalates Financial Hardships for the Parmars

Mukesh told The Mooknayak that “we were already reeling under heavy financial burden after the boycott, but the treatment of his father has resulted in an additional expense of Rs7-8 lakh. After he was relieved from the ICU, he is on regular dose of drugs. After the transfer of the cards by the District Collector, the things have gone worse.”

As per the collector’s order, Kanti’s FPS has recorded a gradual decrease in distribution of ration. It distributed 36.84 per cent, 30.14 per cent, 9.18 per cent and 8.18 per cent ration in March, April, May and June this year, respectively, the order said.

Kanosan Sarpanch Raghu Thakor told local newspaper that there were complaints from the villagers that they were not getting ration in proper quantity and therefore, we had demanded to transfer the ration cards from his FPS to a nearby village.”

Mukesh denied all these allegations saying our boycott is due to casteist mindset of the people and said, “we have proof of the delivery of the quantity of ration made by us."