'While crimes against SCs registered an increase of 32 per cent, the crimes against STs increased by 55 per cent in the period between 2013 to 2017... Despite higher number of criminal cases committed against the marginalised sections of the society, the state authorities have failed in bringing the culprits to the book. The data furnished by vigilance and monitoring committee of social justice and empowerment suggest that the state has miserably lagged as far as the conviction rate is concerned. The state registered a 3.78 per cent conviction rate in 2017 and 2018...'
'Several cases were raised in the Assembly, exposing BJP’s anti-dalit attitude in the state... An RTI activist and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Kedar Singh Jindan of Bakras village of Sirmaur district was brutally murdered on September 7, 2018, reportedly by upper caste people of the area, by crushing him under a Scorpio Jeep. Jindan, an advocate by profession, had exposed through several RTI petitions, the alleged loot of certain upper caste people who had denied the benefits of government schemes meant for weaker sections of the society.
'On July 16, 2016, seven people belonging to a dalit family were flogged in public in Una, Gujarat. The incident was videotaped and circulated by men belonging to upper caste. The trial of the case that had begun more than two years later in August 2018, now stands the risk of witnesses turning hostile. Dipendra Yadav, the Public Prosecutor in the case has been repeatedly writing to concerned authorities demanding an office for himself to prepare the witnesses, and security for witnesses but in vain.
'The Principal and Vice-Principal of HK Arts College in Ahmedabad have resigned in protest against the trustees caving in to Right Wing threats and disallowing a function that was to be attended by Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, an alumnus of the college, as part of the college’s annual day function on Monday. According to media reports, the programme was cancelled after Brahmchari Wadi Trust, which governs HK College, refused to provide a hall for the function where Mevani, an Independent MLA, was the chief guest. The Trust has some Padma awardees as members.
'For the past two years, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has been in news for a number of reasons. Starting from widespread protests by girl students in 2017 to several students being expelled on frivolous grounds. The latest is an incident wherein a dalit professor was assaulted allegedly over some “objectionable” comment on a Facebook post. On January 29, a dalit professor from the department of sociology was beaten up by a group of students and outsiders, allegedly for posting a comment on a picture of a professor and a female student, as per reports.
'On Monday news of another mob lynching shook Kerala - this time a migrant worker was killed on the suspicion of stealing a hen. This is the seventh such case to be reported from the state since the beginning of this year. This points to a worrying trend in the state, and sociologists, psychiatrists and rights groups say they have reason to believe that only a specific section of people of people are being targeted - Dalits, migrant workers, transgender people and women.
'IN July 2016, in Una town of Junagadh district, two young Dalits who were skinning the carcasses of cows that they had been asked to collect were accused of killing the cows and beaten brutally. They were further humiliated by being tied to rickshaws and flogged. The public assault and the fact that self-declared gau rakshaks were on the rampage at the time ensured that the Una case received national attention, but cases such as the ones listed below remain largely unknown:
'Vigilantism is flourishing in India, unabated. Mobile footage of civilians beating, kicking, flogging crime suspects, the weak and the vulnerable alike has now become a regular feature on television rundowns. The latest in the series of horrific lynch-attack videos have emerged from prime minister Narendra Modi's Gujarat. A man is bound by his waist with a rope looped through the handlebar of a door. Its other end is held by one of his four attackers. He howls in pain as two men take turns to whip him with a PVC stick.
'On the political front, the BJP is showcasing its inclusive character; however, in the social sphere, the right wing is using anti-Dalit sentiments to consolidate its political base.
'Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar on Sunday alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office had asked the Maharashtra government to not arrest the two Hindutva leaders accused of inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1. A day after the violence on New Year’s Day, the police had filed cases against 85-year-old Sambhaji Bhide, who leads the organisation Shiv Pratishthan, and Milind Ekbote, who heads the radical Hindu outfit Samasta Hindu Aghadi. The two have not been arrested yet...'
