Khap outcasts family as daughters perform dad's last rites

A khap panchyat of Rager community in Bundi district near here today allegedly outcast the four women and their family members for performing the last rites of their father, who had no son to shoulder his bier.

"The family was subjected to the community wrath as we four sisters decided to shoulder our father's bier as per his last wish," said Meena, the eldest of the four daughters of Durgashankar Tailor, 58, who died last night at his residence in Barli Bundi Rager colony in Bundi near here.

Though some community leaders denied the incident, the victim family members insisted that they have been ostracised "not openly but in a silent way" as they were not allowed to have the customary, post-cremation bath at the community complex.

"They did not supply us any food either after we returned home from the crematorium ground," said Meena, explaining the custom as per which no meal is cooked in the house of a deceased on the day of the death and the family is supplied food by the neighbours.

The incident comes close on the heels of another case of ostracisation of a five-year-old girl in Bundi district for accidently damaging some eggs of a sandpiper bird.

Meena said following her father's death last night after a prolonged illness, she and her three sisters decided to perform his last rites as per his last wishes and shoulder his bier to the cremation ground, as "we have no brother."
He went on to praise the four women's act of shouldering their father's bier, and alleged that "some community people from outside Bundi having rivalry with us are behind spreading the rumour of outcasting the family."