'National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ), headquartered in New Delhi, has released a detailed report on increasing human rights violation cases against Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalized communities of India during COVID-19 lockdown. In April and May alone during the nationwide lockdown, NDMJ and SASY intervened in 67 cases of caste and gender-based violence, the nature of these cases revealing layered untouchability through socio-economic boycott and physical assault as the main cause.
'On February 24, communal violence engulfed North East Delhi, leaving at least 53 people dead over the next three days, most of whom were Muslim. Exactly a month later, India went under a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Normal life came to a halt – but not Delhi Police’s investigation into the violence... But many lawyers and activists say the lockdown reduced scrutiny of the police investigation and impaired access to justice for those arrested.
'Amidst the dark shadow of India’s lockdown, the Delhi police – controlled by the Central government – has been busy with tasks entirely unrelated to controlling the Covid-19 pandemic. Its schedule is packed with searching homes and offices; confiscating phones and documents; and questioning, detaining, and arresting large numbers of persons. It is instructive that these arrests are being made when the Supreme Court has directed governments to decongest jails to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
'“It was around 7 PM in the evening on 8 May. I was in my house, cutting fruits for iftar. My husband was sitting on the bed at the other corner of the room, playing with my one-year-old daughter when some policemen barged into the house, dragged him outside and thrashed him mercilessly.”... Rehana* said she pleaded with the police to let her husband at least break his Ramzaan fast with a drop of water. “But they did not relent,” she said, breaking down beside the plate of chopped fruits...'
'Stopped for violating lockdown orders, a BJP worker allegedly tried to crush a police inspector under SUV in Halvad town of Morbi district on Tuesday night...'
'More than 10,000 Muslim migrant workers from Bihar and West Bengal residing at Painters’ Colony in Jaipur’s Nahri ka Naka area, who have only been given dry ration packets since the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, took to the streets on Sunday asking to be sent back home. They claimed that only around 400 packets, each containing a total of seven kilograms of flour, pulses, rice and salt, was distributed among 10,000 people last month. This, too, only came after volunteers of the CPI(ML), CPM and CPI in the area intervened.
'Amidst the nationwide lockdown to contain the COVID-19, Kashmiris stranded in Jaipur, Rajasthan, were allegedly beaten up and harassed by the police when they were out “to buy basic essentials”. Speaking to The Kashmir Walla, Altaf Dar, a resident of Bandipora, north Kashmir, who has been working as a caterer in Hassanpora, Jaipur, claims that he was beaten up by the police when he had gone out in search of ration in the evening of 29 April. Dar, 23, added that his group of twenty-five people was short of money and had run out of essentials.
'More than one-third of the world’s population is under lockdown. The recent UN Women’s Report titled ‘Covid-19 and ending violence against women and girls’ has reported that since the outbreak of Covid-19, violence against women, and particularly domestic violence, has increased in several countries as security, health and financial worries create tensions and strain accentuated by the cramped and confined living conditions of a lockdown. Billions of people are now sheltering at home from the global impact of Covid-19...'
'Three days after the mob lynching of three men in Palghar, Maharashtra, the emergence of video footage of the brutal attack has given the incident a political colour with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and Hindutva activists on social media using the fact that the victims were Hindu to allege the killings were part of “appeasement politics”. Late evening on April 16, three persons travelling in a Ford EcoSport were attacked by a group of men in Palghar and killed.
'Tension prevailed in Sattenapalle town in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district after a man named Mohammed Ghouse (35) died on Monday after being questioned, and allegedly manhandled by police officers for venturing out during the lockdown. The incident took place at around 8 am, and people in the town are allowed to step out for essentials between 6 am and 9 am. Further, though Ghouse was out well within the designated time period, he was also reportedly buying medicines, which is allowed through the day. After Ghouse passed away, the residents of the town were taking his body in a vehicle.
