No let up in crimes against dalits, RTI data shows

Times of India‎‎: Ahmedabad: Friday, July 22, 2016.

The brutal flogging of four dalits, who were skinning dead cows near Una town of Gir- Somnath, has sparked a massive outrage across Gujarat. Gujarat police figures suggest that atrocities against the dalits have not recorded any decline in the past one-and-a-half decade.

According to the figures obtained under the RTI Act from Gujarat Director General of Police office, Gujarat, oft-quoted for its development model, had registered as many as 1,033 cases of offences including murder, grievous hurt, rape and arson against the dalits in 2001. In 2015, the situation remained more or less same with the state registering 1,052 such cases.

The RTI figures also contradict Union home minister Rajnath Singh's statement in Lok Sabha on Wednesday that atrocities against the dalits in Gujarat have declined since 2001. Singh had, in fact, lauded the state government for its swift action in the Una incident.

The RTI filed by a Mehsana-based right activist, Kaushik Parmar, has revealed that 409 offences against the dalits have been recorded in the state by April this year. According to the activists, the state, on an average, registers at least three cases of violence against the dalit community everyday.

The violence against the dalit women has also risen from 14 rapes in 2001 to 58 rape cases registered in 2015. By April this year, as many as 27 cases of rape against the dalit women have been registered in the state.

According to the RTI reply of the state police department, the dalits in 116 villages are given police protection after the incidents of atrocity. Bhavanagar district has the highest 37 villages where in the dalits are living under police protection, while Rajkot and Banaskantha districts each has 12 villages having police deployment after offences against the dalit community were registered.

Parmar said that these are the figures which were registered by the police, but in many cases, cops refused to file FIR in offences against the dalits. "Under fear, the dalit community has migrated from 19 villages of Gujarat," Parmar said, stressing that the BJP-led state government should initiate stern actions to stop atrocities or else they would face a jolt in the 2017 assembly election.

Minister of state for home Rajnikant Patel and social justice and empowerment minister Ramanlal Vora were not available for their response on the issue despite several attempts.