News Analysis India

Tag: Dalit atrocities

  • Teenage couple paraded in UP village with faces blackened, footwear garland; 15 arrested

    By PTI

    BASTI: A teenage boy and a girl were paraded with a garland of footwear around their necks and faces blackened for apparently having an affair in a village in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.

    After a video of the incident that took place in the Gaur police station area on Tuesday went viral, police swung into action and arrested 15 people.

    According to some villagers, the boy and the girl belonging to the Dalit community were accosted and brought before a village panchayat, which pronounced that they be paraded in the village and publicly shamed.

    No one in the village objected to the panchayat decision, they said.

    “It is an unfortunate incident. They belong to the same community,” Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Dipendra Chowdhary said.

    Superintendent of Police Ashish Srivastava said an FIR has been registered against 15 people under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on a complaint by the boy’s mother.

    The police officer investigating the case said security has been provided to the families of the boy and the girl and that police personnel have been deployed in the village to prevent any flare-up.

  • Dalit youth killed over removal of Ambedkar posters in Rajasthan 

    By Express News Service
    JAIPUR: A Dalit youth succumbed to injuries after he was brutally thrashed by a group of people over the removal of Ambedkar posters in Rajasthan’s Hanumangrah district. 

    Vinod Bamania, 22, from Kinkralia village died in the hospital at Sri Ganganagar.

    According to the police, Vinod was a member of the Bheem Army. It was alledged that some youngsters from OBC community are behind his killing. The police have arrested two out of the four accused, according to the victim’s family.

    Mukesh, a cousin of Vinod, said that a days ago Vinod and some of his friends had celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti and had put up some posters of the Dalit icon outside their house. Later, some of the accused tore off the posters leading to a quarrel between two sides. Vinod was attacked on June 5 which left him seriously injured. Two days later, he died in the hospital. The FIR mentioned Anil Sihag and Rakesh Sihag along with the a few others as accused.

    According to the FIR, the accused not only beat up the youngster but also made highly objectionable casteist comments while they were thrashing him. Mukesh said, “On june 5, I and vinod were going to our farm when a vehicle stopped near us suddenly. A number of people came out of the vehicle with hockey sticks and lathis and attacked us.” The attackers allegedly said, “Now, we will tell you what Ambedkarvaad is”. 

    According to the police, Vinod had earlier lodged several complaints of Dalit atrocities against the accused. Mukesh says Vinod was targeted because of that. 

    Circle officer of Rawatsar Ranveer Singh Meena said: “The whole dispute centres around the tearing of the posters of Ambedkar from Vinod’s house. We have arrested two people behind the attack and two main accused — Rakesh Sihag and Anil Sihag — are absconding.”

    Members of the Bheem Army accused the police in Rawatsar for being “inactive” and held a demonstration. However, Hanumangrah SP Preeti Jain said the allegation is baseless as the cops took quick action after they came to know abou the incident.

    The police have lodged the case under section 307 , 323, 341 and 143 of the IPC and also under many sections of the  SC/ST Act. After Vinod’s death, the cops added section 302 (for murder cases).

  • ‘Dalit women continue to face atrocities for claiming their rights’

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Dalit women continue to face violence due to assertion to access the basic resources of land, water, sanitation facilities, education, and payment of wages, according to a report ‘Dalit Women Rise to Justice: Status Report 2021  by All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM).

    As a part of the report, the case analysed 81 case interventions. Dalit women’s assertion of their right to self-dignity, legal recourse, participation in local self-governance, the assertion of the right to cultural freedom, nexus and collusion of perpetrators with state authorities, retaliation over unsolved disputes, lack of awareness of basic human rights, legal and fundamental rights, and women-related policies, said the report.

    The major forms of violence against Dalit women included rape, gangrape, attempt to rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, murder (accompanied by rape, gangrape or kidnapping), witch-hunting, mass attacks with physical assault, loss of lives and property, and social boycott, according to the observations made in the report.

    The AIDMAM’s legal intervention in 81 cases of atrocities on Dalit women and girls showed there was a delay in registration of FIRs, discouragement or refusal by police to file complaints at the first instance, the procedure being delayed by police in producing the survivor before the judicial magistrate in recording the statement, false counter cases filed against victims of caste and gender-based violence, survivors being denied by the administration. The report said that compensation was paid to 31 survivors of the 81 cases, ie. 40.26 per cent of the total FIRs. This cumulative amount of Rs 13.6 million was paid by states after the AIDMAM followed up on the cases, according to the report.

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    The report pointed out in many cases there was no effective implementation of provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The National Crime Records Bureau report had documented an increasing number of criminal cases against Dalit women.

    The AIDMAM pointed out in its report the NCRB 2019 data showed 10 Dalit women and girls are raped every day but 29 per cent of the accused are convicted for their crimes.

    The reports have come up with a slew of recommendations which include holding public campaigns to create awareness on the provisions of the SC/ST (PoA) Act, states taking up violence prevention measures by mapping atrocity-prone areas, and setting up protection cells.

    Effective implementation of the SC/ST (PoA) Act, and allocating adequate budget, and ensuring utilisation of funds for rehabilitation of survivors are the way forward, it said.