Casteism is an age-old system in India that favoured a certain sect of people over the other and gave free reign for those in power to oppress and look down upon the others. This system was legally abolished in 1950, and since then, laws have been put in place to protect Dalits and other similar people who were affected by this unfair bias. Despite all this effort, it is safe to say that casteism, unfortunately, still exists in our society and to this day is still practised in some parts of rural India.
VIOLENCE AGAINST THE OPPRESSED
The Dalit community was already victim to discrimination and violence prior to the pandemic era. But with the coming of the covid age, the amount of caste-based violence has significantly increased. According to the 2019 government data, the crime rate against SC’s and ST’s have gone up by 7.3% and 26.5%. Uttar Pradesh has reported the highest number of crimes against Dalits. Since the beginning of the lockdown, there have been incidents of violence almost every second day. According to Human Rights Watch, in July, a Dalit man was stripped and beaten along with his family for allegedly touching the bike of a dominant caste man. In September, a Dalit lawyer was killed over his social media posts critical of Brahminism. On May 27th 2020, a highly educated 32-year-old Dalit activist, Arvind Bansod, died under suspicious circumstances, and the police administration dubbed it a “suicide” without any proper investigation. These are just a few examples to show the atrocities and humiliation that the Dalit community is subjected to for no fault of theirs.
Dalit women are victims of inappropriate behaviours, sometimes dehumanized while having their modesty outraged as punishment for a kin’s “crime”. Almost 4 lakh rape cases were filed in 2019, according to the NCRB, compared to 2,36,728 in 2018. In September 2020, members of the upper caste brutally assaulted a teenage Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh. The negligence of the police was even more astounding as they failed to properly follow up and arrest the perpetrators. They even went so far as to hastily bury the body to cover up evidence. This fatal incident garnered both national and international media attention and reignited the debate surrounding India’s caste system of hierarchy. Despite its constitutional abolition, these ancient ideas persist. On average, ten Dalit women are raped every day, while the upper caste perpetrators often benefit from impunity. Sexual assault is pervasive in India, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes these issues do not get much coverage on mainstream media. Most of the time, these families do not get the justice they deserve and are constantly harassed by the dominant caste to keep quiet. In 2018, a woman, who was assaulted in Unnao, was burned alive on her way to the court hearing by her rapists.
A significant proportion of rape victims are Dalit women and in the face of a criminal justice system that is predominantly male, misogynistic and upper caste, these women find it hard to secure justice.
LAWS IN PLACE TO PROTECT
The Prevention of Atrocities Act (PoA)1989 is the only legal recourse available to the Dalits to fight against caste-based instances of violence and safeguard themselves from hate crimes. Under this Act, any kind of caste-based violence is an atrocity and is punishable by imprisonment. The law back then still had a few loopholes to address. In 1991, in the Tsundur massacre, where 13 Dalits were killed, the Andhra Pradesh high court acquitted all the 56 who were convicted. Few other such incidents led to the strengthening of this law to include stringent punishment to public officials neglecting their duties. Despite strengthening this law, Dalit organizations have repeatedly expressed their concern over the ground implementation of this Act. According to government data, the conviction rate of cases filed under this law is only 25.2%.
EFFECT OF THE PANDEMIC
The people belonging to the rural Dalit community belong to the poorer fringe of the society. They had migrated to the cities in search of jobs since they could find better opportunities there and were less likely to be denied said opportunity based on their caste. But since the onset of the lockdown, they have had to travel back to their hometowns, and this has adversely affected them, their families and their livelihoods. It is hard for them to find jobs due to the stigma surrounding their caste, and most of the opportunities provided by the government are given only to those from the dominant caste.
CONCLUSION
The government should work towards providing more legal help to the Dalit community while addressing the loopholes in the current acts to improve and protect their way of life. Also, stricter laws should be introduced to punish those in the wrong. The eradication of these conservative notions and ancient mindset is the only way we as a society can look forward to equality as a whole.
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