Village that witnessed caste violence, elects Dalit sarpanch

Mirchpur village in Hisar district of Haryana, which has witnessed caste violence nearly 12 years ago, has elected a Dalit woman as the village sarpanch.

Rajni, the new sarpanch is a Dalit married to an upper caste person. The post of sarpanch is reserved for a Dalit woman and that helped Rajni to get elected, though there were eight other candidates in the fray. Some of the defeated candidates claimed that Rajni was backed by people, because she was married to an upper caste person.

Rajni becomes the first Dalit woman to be sarpanch in the village, which had witnessed caste violence in 2010, in which two Dalit persons were burnt alive, when their house was set on fire by an upper caste mob.

Fearing further attacks and violence, many Dalit families had fled the villager and they were resettled in Deen Dayal Puram near Hisar.