Scheduled tribe family alleges discrimination

Kannur: A family from the

scheduled tribe

community has alleged that authorities of a temple in Kasaragod forced them to do ‘shudhikarma’ to clean the temple premises after the ‘choroonu’ ceremony of their child.

According to the Prasad K, who belongs to the Mavilan community, of Koodanam near Periya in Kasaragod, the incident happened on October 20 when he and his family went to Maniyanthatta Mahavishnu temple for the ‘choroonu’ ceremony of his daughter Naidika.

After the ceremony near the ‘balikkallu’ of the temple, the authorities asked them to do the ‘shudhikarma’ by pouring water mixed with cow dung and clean the premises, he alleged.

“They made us do ‘shudhikarma’ because we are from a scheduled tribe community, and hence we decided to file a police complaint,” he said.

However, according to temple committee president Kadayanganam Raghavan Nair, there is no caste discrimination in the temple and everybody who performs ‘choroonu’ is asked to do the cleaning. “This is a rite we have been following since many years,” he said. Kasaragod district police chief A Srinivas said they have got the complaint and inquiry is underway.