Hakki Pikki community members take out protest march seeking enumeration

Members of the nomadic Hakki Pikki community took out a protest march in Belagavi demanding that they be enumerated in the social and educational survey that began on Monday.

Members of the Zilla Hakki Pikki Sangha and Karnataka State Dalit Sangharsh Samiti staged a protest at the Kittur Channamma Circle, demanding that they be included in the social and educational survey being conducted by the Backward Classes Commission.

They marched to the District Collector’s Office and appealed to the district administration to fulfil their demands.

“Census officials have marked nodal points of the survey based on electricity metres and the Hakki Pikki community is likely to miss out on the survey as most members of the community live in huts without power supply or other facilities. Some of them live in tribal hamlets on the edge of forests. Enumerators are likely to ignore all such settlements,” they argued.

“The Hakki Pikki community in Shivamogga, Mysuru, Davangere and Bengaluru have been given Scheduled Tribes caste certificates and provided with infrastructure. However, caste certificates have not been given to 50-60 families in Belagavi district,” they complained. They demanded that special efforts be made to include them in the survey.

Community leaders Dayanand Hakki Pikki, Rajashekar Hindalagi, Karthik Talawar, Raju Hakki Pikki, Ravi Madar and others were present.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Roshan said that the problems of nomadic communities like Hakki Pikki have come to the attention of the government and that guidelines have been laid out for their enumeration.

“We have spoken to the Backward Classes Commission in this regard and sought instructions. We will call all the Hakki Pikki community members to one place and conduct a survey offline or on camp mode. We are asking the community members to collect and keep whatever documents they can possibly do, for the survey,” Mr. Roshan told reporters.