Untouchables of Asia - Discrimination at the well

Jakob Carlsen

Freelance

In the village of Tikha in the far western region of Nepal the majority of the villagers are untouchables. But the village well where all washing and watersupplie for the household is done, is divided into two seperate wells about 50 meters apart, one for untouchables and one for caste people. The reason for this is the belief that the untouchables are unclean and that their touching the taps and water used by caste people will make the caste people unclean too. Some years back the untouchables wanted the well to be shared but the upper caste people denied. As a result the Municipality build a new concrete well for the untouchables to shut their mouths. The untouchables still feel the discrimination as a yoke on their shoulders. In practise it is also very awkward because the caste well, due to the scarce population of caste people, is seldom used, but the untouchables well is always over crowded because of the large population of untouchables.

Jakob Carlsen, "Untouchables of Asia - Discrimination at the well," in POYi Archive, Item #43147, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/43147 (accessed November 22, 2024).