Kathmandu, Mar. 27:Whether or not you allow a  person from the Dalit community into your house is completely your personal discretion, but mind you, you may be in for an embarrassing situation if you start discriminating people on the basis of their caste at a public place or an eatery.

A tea-stall owner at a village near the capital who abused a Dalit man for failing to wash the glass from which he drank tea faced such a situation here Sunday and he had to close his shop and flee after a group of about 100 Dalits picketed  his shop protesting his action.

It is learnt that 15-year-old Bimal Bisunke (Sarki), a resident of Tahachal, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, who had gone to attend the wedding ceremony of his relative Putali Bisunke at Ward No. 1 in Band Bhanjyang VDC,  was abused by the owner and his sons Bhim and Mohan when he refused to wash the glass he drank tea from at their tea-shop.

Bimal Bisunke, a grade nine student at local Paropakar Secondary School, Bhimsensthan, complains he was beaten up for no fault of his when he protested why he should wash the glass when he has paid for the tea.

After the unfortunate incident, Bimal filed a complaint at the Kalimati police post and went to the Bir Hospital for treatment.

A day after the incident took place on March 7, the society for the liberation of oppressed and downtrodden castes of Nepal, Kathmandu district committee office-bearers went to the Thankot police post to lodge a complaint about the incident demanding  legal action against the abusers.

But they complain that even the police did not cooperate but scolded them instead.

However, egged on by the society, the police called the accused persons to present themselves at the police post within 15 days of the incident, made them sign documents that they will not engage in such caste discriminations henceforth and freed them.

In this connection, the society for liberation of the oppressed and downtrodden castes of Nepal Sunday organised a protest corner meeting near the tea-shop where the incident occurred so that such incidents do not recur in the VDC and elsewhere.

The tea-shop owners closed their shop and fled from there on seeing the large assembly of the people from the Dalit community.

Addressing the protest gathering, central general secretary of the society Dipak Jung Bishwakarma said that the society would now organise  such protest meetings on a campaign basis at the place of the incidents since the so-called “higher caste people” still continued to discriminate against the people of the lower castes even though the constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-1990 prohibits caste discrimination.

Central treasurer of Nepal Dalit Sangh and Dhuba Surkheti, a local Dalit youth, called upon all the Dalits to unite to eliminate social discrimination against them.

Journalist Hiralal Bishwakarma, victim of the abuse Bimal Bisunke, Kathmandu district member of the liberation society Kamal Purkoti and others flayed the incident and rued caste discrimination in our society.

When a Dalit man tried to buy a packet of biscuit from a shop owned by a person of  the surname of Adhikari after the mass meeting, he was denied and nearly beaten up by the owner.

The members of the Dalit community were furious at this and they tried to attack the shop-keeper. However, the police intervened and calmed them down. The situation cooled after the local intellectuals offered their apologies to the Dalits on behalf of the shopkeeper.

Nearly 45 families in Band Bhanjyang VDC belong to the Dalit community. Most of them are Surkhetis, Achhamis, Bisankus and some of the Pariyar surname.

Central treasurer of Nepal Dalit Sangh and former VDC vice-chairman of Band Bhanjyang VDC Dhruba Surkheti says that caste discrimination does not exist in other wards of the VDC except Ward No. 1.

He says the people of the so-called lower castes are  socially stigmatized and looked down upon by the people of the  higher castes.

It is learnt that there is a grocery shop at the VDC owned by a Dalit where most of the 350 Dalit families buy commodities. Otherwise, they all the way to Thankot to buy goods not available at the shop.