Hairdresser’s family complains of ostracism in Virudhunagar

A hairdresser’s family has complained of caste Hindu villagers socially boycotting them after a youth from their family eloped with a local girl belonging to a different caste, in Ulakkudi near Narikudi.

They have petitioned Collector R. Kannan seeking security so that they can go back to Ulakkudi and ensure their livelihood there.

According to the 60-year-old petitioner, M. Panchavarnam, after her husband Mari’s death four years back, her son-in-law, Raja, has been running a saloon.

Raja, who had returned from abroad, had started to serve the Scheduled Caste people too.

“We have to meet our rising expenses and hence my husband cut the hair of SC people also which was objected to by the caste Hindus for long,” Raja’s wife, Saraswathi (35) said.

After Panchavarnam’s nephew eloped with a caste Hindu girl, the villagers passed a diktat and the family was not allowed to fetch water from the public tap and could not buy provisions in the local shop, the petition said.

“When we decided to leave the house and my daughter went to a local shop to buy a lock, they even refused to give the lock. Now, our house has been left unlocked,” she said.

The petitioner also blamed Ulakkudi panchayat president Rajammal and her husband Thennarasu, who is a Village Administrative Officer, among others for ostracising them.

The Collector has promised to look into the issue and directed the police to provide them security, she said.

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