The Panchayati Raj Act provides for a Social Justice Committee in every village, which is responsible for the disposal of dead animals. The committee in every gram panchayat comprises Dalits. Strangely enough, such a system exists only in Gujarat, say Dalit activists, who are now planning to challenge it in the court of law.

According to the Act, the task of disposing animal carcass in every gram panchayat has been given to the Social Justice Committee.

The Act makes it compulsory to form such a committee in every gram panchayat. The committee comprises of a maximum of five members and minimum three members of either the Scheduled Castes (SC) or Scheduled Tribes (ST).

A Dalit voluntary group, Gujarat Rajya Gram Panchayat Samajik Nyay Samiti Manch, formed to implement certain legal provisions of the Act for the welfare of the weaker sections, is planning to challenge it in the court of law.

“The task of disposing dead animals has been given to the committee of Dalits, which violates their pride and honour. Therefore, we are demanding the removal of the said provision from the Act,” said Mohan Parmar, president of Gujarat Rajya Gram Panchayat Samajik Nyay Samiti Manch.

A week ago, the group had organised a demonstration programme in Ahmedabad to protest against the discriminatory provision.

“It is the gram panchayat’s duty to remove the unattended dead animals and it should make arrangements for the same. It cannot be the responsibility of the Dalit committee,” said Joseph Pateliya, who is a programme manager at the Behavioural Science Centre and who helped form the voluntary group.

Pateliya said a memorandum has been given to the Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Fakir Vaghela, in this regard.

“We are also considering the option of getting legal remedy for the discriminatory provision if the government does not do the needful,” he added.

Meanwhile, Vaghela said he has received the letter from the Dalit group and will consider the demands after going through it.

He, however, refused to comment when asked if he finds anything objectionable in the legal provision of assigning the task of removing dead animals to the Dalits.