Unless address the root cause, problem will remain endemic
The 9-year-old Dalit girl’s alleged raped and brutal murder by a priest and his three cohorts near a crematorium in the National Capital Delhi has once again reinforced the fact that caste-based violence has become an everyday harsh reality for Dalits in ‘New India’, an euphemism used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to describe his rule. But what is a more worrisome fact is that the ruling party spokesmen and supporters made strenuous efforts to give false narrative on media every time a child or a woman is brutally raped and murdered. The alleged rapists, in this case, deny all charges and claim that the child died of an electric shock she got from a water cooler. But this does not explain why they were in such a hurry to cremate the child’s body, even when her aggrieved mother was trying to stop them.
It is also an indisputable fact that after assuming power at the Centre by the Bharatiya Janta Party, the total number of atrocities and cases of violence against Dalits and other marginalised communities has sharply increased. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data has put atrocities against Dalits in 2019 to be 45,935, with Uttar Pradesh having 11,829 cases alone – accounting for 25.8% of total caste atrocities against Dalits across India. As for sex violence, NCRB’s latest report says in 2019 alone, there were over 405,861 cases of assaults on women – 7 per cent more than what was reported in 2018. The crimes include beating, stripping, kidnapping and rape. Of these, 13,273 assaults, which included 3,486 cases of rape, were against women from Dalit communities.
Cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes recorded under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 have increased by 281.75% between 2009 and 2018.
Also, this data is only of reported cases as more than double of caste-based atrocity cases go unreported every year due to the unwillingness of police to file FIRs in such cases, lack of support from the government and threats on the lives of victims and their family members by perpetrators.
Manisha Mashaal, founder of Swabhiman Society, believes that almost 80 per cent of Dalit women who are raped do not report the crime because of political and social pressure as the women and their families are usually threatened by the perpetrators. Besides, Mashaal says, a majority of the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors are minor Dalit girls, while NCRB data for child rape survivors does not differentiate according to caste.
In Hathras (UP) and the recent atrocity case in Southwest Delhi’s cantonment area, where young Dalit girls were raped, murdered and forcefully cremated, justice is being prevented because all democratic institutions have been compromised.
In Delhi, the footage on the CCTV cameras installed in the premises of the crematorium has been destroyed. The police was supposed to arrest the accused, but instead of doing that they harassed the victim’s family. Because of these reasons, Dalit victims do not get justice.
The victim’s distressed mother when first went to the Police station to report the matter, instead of providing help, she was allegedly beaten up in the station as she claimed.
The Prime Minister said that fast track courts would be set up so that justice is not delayed in such cases. But this has not been the case. There has been no statement made in the Parliament. But he gives a certificate to the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh as a model government.
Another case in point is the Tsunduru massacre of 8 Dalit youth in Andhra Pradesh and no one has been convicted till now even after 30 years.
Sexual violence, including rape and gang rape and caste discrimination against Dalit women has become an endemic problem which is rooted in historical and societal customs.
Jacqui Hunt, the Europe and Eurasia Director of Equality Now, says, “As a consequence of gender, caste and class inequalities, Dalit women and girls are subjected to multiple forms of subjugation, exploitation, and oppression. Sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, has been perpetrated against them by men from dominant castes as a mechanism that reinforces India’s deeply entrenched structural hierarchies. Women’s bodies are being used as a battleground to assert caste supremacy and to keep women ‘in their place’.”
Manisha Mashaal, who works for Dalit rape victims, says, “This is the reason why there are continuous gruesome sexual assaults on Dalit women because they are thrice-vulnerable. First, because of their caste, second, because of their gender and third, because of their landless status.”
Rahmathunnissa, Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Women’s Department, opines that some of the so-called upper-class men believe that it is their right to molest/ rape or ill-treat women from the so-called lower class.
Liquor is another villain. For example, Rahmathunnissa says in the Delhi rape case the girl was only 9 but was going to work. The men in that village drink publicly and abuse women. “We visited Nangal village where the incident had taken place on August 1 and had interaction with the women and girls of that village. All of them were saying that life is not at all safe in that village for women due to this public use of liquor,” she adds.
Referring to the hate speeches of ruling party politicians and some religious leaders against certain communities advocating rape of their women, she said this has emboldened youths that it is okay to do such atrocities against women.
IDEOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS
Many politicians believe that the spike in atrocities on Dalits and marginalised sections is attributed to the ruling party’s ideology.
Speaking with Radiance, Dr. Nitin Raut, Chairman SC Department of the Congress, avers the explicit aim of Hindu Rashtra of the RSS-BJP and its other outfits is to essentially maintain the hierarchical social order.
“The caste-based violence is intended to humiliate Dalits and establish an unequal society. Hence it is essential that we should not take out the caste of the victim and the perpetrator from these incidents as it would erase the historic oppression that put the Dalit girl child in such a circumstance in the first place: not having access to drinking water at home,” Dr Raut adds.
Concurring Raut’s views, CPI leader Annie Raja underlines that toeing the ideological line drawn from Golwalkar and Hedgewar, this government is aggressively pursuing the policy of othering and eliminating and the idea of the citizen and the Constitution itself is being redrawn in order to institutionalise the violent idea of a Hindu Rashtra.
Violence against Dalits, especially Dalit women, structurally and at an everyday level is a historical reality while the BJP government has most certainly worsened the violence and precariousness experienced by the Dalit community, Annie Raja, who is also General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), observes.
OPPOSITION PARTIES’ LIP SERVICE
Opposition Congress held a “Halla Bol” protest on August 12 at Jantar Mantar, near the Parliament on the issue of rising heinous atrocities and non-implementation of measures to protect Dalits by the current BJP government.
However, Dr S Q R Ilyas, President Welfare Party of India (WPI), avers political parties make tall claims but do little to address the real problem of caste-discrimination.
Dr Ilyas, who led a delegation to meet the victim’s family, said the family is very frustrated as they don’t have any shelter and are living in an open space.
Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal handed over a cheque of rupees 10,00,000 but gave no home under any government scheme.
Dr Ilyas also criticised the government, saying the incident took place in the national capital but it is very unfortunate that neither Prime Minister nor Home Minister nor even the Delhi Lieutenant Governor issued any statement to console the family.
Since Amit Shah became Home Minister, Delhi has become egregiously vulnerable be it Delhi pogrom, inflammatory communal speeches, rape and murder of Dalit girls, all these sinister incidents are happening under his nose and on top it dissent voices are being constantly stifled, he added.
DALIT GROUPS’ SILENCE
It is also puzzling to note that Dalit groups and their organisations are not revolting against caste-system which is the root cause of their plight. Dalit parties like BSP, LJP, RPI and others mere formally issue a statement of condemnation whenever such an incident comes to light but do not run any sustained campaign against this cruel system.
Annie Raja says it is a misplaced perception. According to her, the anti-caste discourse and politics that has been fighting for dignity since decades poses a serious challenge to the agenda hatched in Nagpur but renewed and accelerated assertion from the historically marginalised communities is being met with sheer violence with absolute state sanction.
But, Dr. Ilyas has a different take, saying the Dalit community will be targeted again and again till they didn’t revolt against the caste system. It is the curse of the caste system which has made them vulnerable.
He has an advice to the Muslim community that being Khair-e-Ummah (the best community raised for the welfare of people), “they must come forward to the rescue of Dalits, Adivasis and all the marginalised sections of the society. It is their religious duty.”
The bottom-line is that the endemic sex and caste discrimination and violence faced by Dalit women cannot be addressed without rooting out the evil and cruel caste system from the country which gives licence to subjugate the have-nots.