HRTC Staff Face Caste Discrimination in Kullu’s Villages, Forced to Pay ‘Social Fine’

Hem Raj, a conductor with the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) was forced to pay a social fine of Rs. 10,000 because people of Khanipand village of Kullu got to know that the conductor, who entered a local’s house, belonged to Scheduled Caste.

This is not a one of its kind incident. Earlier, Raj Mohammad, a Muslim conductor had requested HRTC to change his bus route because he was not getting anything to eat in the village where the bus halted for the night.

Chande Ram, HRTC Union President narrated Hem Raj’s incident to Newsclick, “Actually, our bus driver and conductor had to halt for the night in Khanipand. Khanipand is a very backward area and HRTC has started it’s services on this route recently. The bus driver knew somebody in that area and so he decided to stay there for the night. Because the bus driver was aware about the caste practice in that area, he informed the conductor- who was of a lower caste, about the situation and the conductor decided that it was best if he found his way home before this could become an issue. Even though he left, the owner of the house found out that this incident took place where a lower caste conductor entered his house and he gathered the entire village and threatened the bus driver that unless the driver gave him a sum of Rs. 30,000-40,000, they would not let the driver depart with the bus.”

He further said that because it was imperative for the driver to leave due to a death in his family, the driver had to give the owner Rs. 10,000 for the “cleansing” process of the house.

Discrimination Rampant

Reportedly, several cases like these have been coming up of caste discrimination with HRTC employees in areas like Khanipand, Shaangad and Kamand in Kullu district after which the Regional Manager (RM) of HRTC in Kullu- D K Narang, wrote a letter to the District Commissioner (DC) appraising him of the issue and stating that they might be forced to stop bus services to remote villages.

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“We are connecting remote villages at all seasons, but the staff especially those belonging to the Scheduled Castes are being harassed in some villages and are not allowed access to basic necessities. Our drivers and conductors halt at a village and bring the bus back the next morning. The winter season has started and they need a place to sleep at night. They also need to eat. Whenever the villages get to know that a conductor or a driver belongs to Scheduled Caste, they do not offer them accommodation or meal,” Narang added.

The State holds the second rank among all states and Union Territories in terms of proportion of SC population to total population. The Scheduled Caste (SC) population of Himachal Pradesh is 1,502,170 as per 2001 census, constituting 24.7 per cent of the total population (6,077,900) of the state.

The Scheduled Castes are predominantly rural as 93.4 per cent of them reside in villages. Among all the districts, Sirmaur district has the highest proportion (29.6 per cent) of the SC population to total population followed by Mandi (29.0 per cent) and Kullu (28.3 per cent) districts.

A local resident from Khanipand told Newsclick that the villagers have their own “Devtas” (deities) due to which they have to observe strict caste distinctions and everybody adheres to these customs including the lower caste villagers as they have their “own devtas”. Therefore, if a lower caste or scheduled caste enters the house of somebody who is not an SC, they are required to cleanse the entire house and sometimes even pay fine to their deity.

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Following this incident, a written application by Hem Raj to the RM, has put the HRTC in a tight spot. Some drivers and conductors have also requested in the past to change their duties from such routes.

“Since we cannot do that due to several reasons our RM was compelled to write a letter of such nature to the DC. There is a lot of pressure to run buses on remote routes but if the staff is meted such treatment, naturally the staff will request to re-route. Paying a social fine of Rs. 10,000-12,000 is a huge burden on any staff member,” an HRTC bus driver told Newsclick on condition of anonymity.

After this incident has come into light, many locals have accused the Regional Manager of falsely painting a caste-discriminatory picture while others have accepted the prevalence of such practices.

While the DC was unavailable for a comment on this, Chande Ram told Newsclick, “We have demanded that there should be basic facilities like shelter and food provided for the staff at such villages and the DC has taken a note of our demands. If the government fails to set up guest houses or staff quarters at such villages, the HRTC in Kullu region will launch protest against buses running on such routes.”