Life's not an easy ride for this Dalit woman rickshaw driver

Trivandrum - The auto rickshaw of Chithralekha was attacked for the third time on the eve of the International Women's Day.

The travails of one of the first female auto drivers in Kerala still continue even as the state government is trying to push more women into the male-dominated profession in order to make travel safe for women.
The auto rickshaw of Chithralekha, who was forced to flee her native village in Kannur district following torture from male auto drivers allegedly belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) there, was attacked for the third time on the eve of the International Women's Day.
The whole upholstery of the vehicle, including the roof, were damaged by the miscreants when she went to her ancestral home at Edatt in the northern district to collect documents related to the criminal cases slapped against her and her husband.
Though she had lodged a complaint with the Payyannur police identifying the local CPM workers responsible for the incident on Friday, they registered a case only after the woman made a representation to the district collector on Monday.
The hostility towards Chithralekha, a Dalit woman, began immediately after she hit the Edatt auto stand controlled by the CITU in 2004 with an auto rickshaw she purchased with bank loans. The CITU workers tried to chase her away by passing casteist slurs against her.
When that did not deter Chithralekha, they burnt her auto and launched a smear campaign portraying her and her mother prostitutes. The harassment continued after she returned to the Edatt stand again in 2008 with an auto bought with the help of human rights activists.
Her auto was attacked again, her house was vandalised and she and her husband beaten up. Even her 10-year-old child wasn't spared physical assaults. When she fought back, "false cases" of violence were slapped against her and her husband, including a case of attempt to murder.
Chithralekha, who moved to Kattampilly, about 30km away from Edatt, in the wake of the torture had gone to the house she left for collecting documents related to one of these cases.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had promised to get the cases reviewed following a month-long agitation she staged in front of the state secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram in January this year.
Chitralekha had also staged a 122-day long sit-in agitation in front of Kannur collectorate last year, demanding protection from CPM workers. Following this the government had allotted her a plot of land at Kattampilly to build a house.
Chithralekha initially thought that the attack on her was prompted by the loss of business the male auto drivers suffered after she hit the roads. However, she later realised that they were intolerant towards her because of her lower caste status.
A solidarity mission commissioned by Feminists Kerala Network to probe one of the attacks on Chithralekha and her husband has confirmed her fear. The mission led by Professor Gail Omvedt concluded that the intolerance towards the Dalit woman was a ritualistic part of the untouchability practiced in the region even today.
The mission's fact-finding report said Chithralekha's travails were the result of a fascist atmosphere created by the CPM in the area. The party has been controlling Edatt as a party village, enforcing its writ over the people living there.
The party has several such villages in Kannur district.
"The CPM exists and thrives in these places through the use of such power over the entire people in these villages. Anyone who questions the party or goes against its wishes is harassed, alienated, ostracized and sometimes even killed," the mission report said.
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• India