Idar (Gujarat) – Shaileshbhai Chenva, a 32-year-old Dalit daily wage labourer from Vadol village near Idar town in North Gujarat, now always ties a white handkerchief on his face when he steps out of the house. He walks with a limp and has deep blue and black marks on his body – signs of the horrific attack he has suffered.
On March 11, Chenva went to work in a cold storage in Idar as usual. While returning after working all day, some Thakurs kidnapped him. He was brutally beaten, then paraded naked in front of the entire village – Nani Vadol. Not only this, he was forced to write an apology letter, in which he had to promise that he would never talk to a Thakur woman.
He said, “The whole village saw me naked, as if I was an animal. No one came to save me.”
Attack on riding a mare at wedding
In 2022, Kishanbhai Senma of Vansol village in Mehsana district has still not forgotten his wedding day — but remembering that day does not make him happy, but he shivers.
When he was riding a mare to his bride’s house for the wedding rituals, people from the Thakur community pulled him down from the mare and showered caste-related abuses on the entire family. The reason was only that Senma was a Dalit and was riding a mare.
Senma said, “These people believe in Manusmriti and treat us like insects. But now we will not sit quiet.”
At first, he decided not to escalate the matter, but a month later he filed a case against the Thakurs.
He said, “When we went to register an FIR, the police said that the matter could be resolved even without investigation. Then we realized that we will have to go to court for our rights.”
Sukhbhai (60), an elder from the village, says, “Our lives are going from bad to worse. Neither are we educated, nor are we considered a vote bank. The government does not care whether we are alive or dead.”
Vikas model vs ground reality
Gujarat may be presented as a ‘Vikas model’, but the figures tell a different story. According to data presented in the Rajya Sabha, the conviction rate in cases of atrocities on Scheduled Castes in Gujarat between 2018 and 2021 was only 3.065% — which is much lower than the national average.
In 2022, 189 such cases were registered in Ahmedabad city alone, which is the highest in the state. 1,425 cases were reported across the state.
Of the total 5,369 cases registered between 2018 and 2021, only 32 cases resulted in conviction. Whereas in 1,012 cases, the accused were acquitted, be it murder or rape.
Attack in village ‘adopted’ by Amit Shah
In January 2024, a minor dispute took the form of violence in Bileshwar village of Gandhinagar district, which has been ‘adopted’ by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Gitaben, a Dalit woman, was milking her cow when some teenagers from the Thakur community were playing nearby. Geetaben asked them to go away and play so that the cow does not get scared. Angered by this, the next day evening, about 200 Thakur men entered the Dalit settlement (Rohitvas Colony) in trucks and attacked the houses with stones, sticks and iron rods. Geetaben and her family suffered serious injuries.
Gitaben said, “The police refused to register an FIR. It seemed as if they did not want to catch the accused.” Later, when Geetaben filed an FIR, the police allowed the Thakurs to file an FIR in retaliation. “This village has been adopted by Amit Shah, but has he forgotten us? The BJP MLA here is also from the Thakur community — Lachchanbhai Punjaji (Bakaji) Thakor — so he gets a free hand,” said Baldevbhai, a village elder.
Atrocities on everyday pretexts
Sombhai Chenva, a cotton farmer in Chitrodi village in Idar, is now scared of animals. People from the Rabari community deliberately let their cattle loose in his crop. When he objected to this six months ago, he was hurled caste-related abuses and his head was broken.
In January 2019, Dahyaben Vankar (65) was attacked after her grandson defeated Thakur boys in a kite-flying competition. Her house was demolished. With the help of an NGO called Jan Vikas, she filed a case under the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act. But six years later, the case is still pending in the Idar district court. The hearing scheduled for December 17, 2024, also could not take place due to the absence of the accused.
Victims said that in most cases, the attackers are from the Thakur, Rabari and Suthar communities — all OBC groups. Petty issues are deliberately turned into disputes to trap Dalits in false cases.
Political silence and government apathy
Jignesh Mevani, MLA from Vadgam and convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, says, “The BJP follows the principles of Manusmriti — which talks about humiliating Shudras and Dalits. That is why no action is taken against those who commit atrocities.”
Mevani launched the ‘Swabhimaan Helpline’ (9724344061) in 2023, which has so far received 113 calls and led to the arrest of 150 accused. “This shows that people have lost faith in the justice system,” he says.
According to the 2011 census, the Scheduled Caste population in Gujarat is 40.74 lakh, or 6.74% of the state’s total population. In the last two decades, the government has not launched any major campaign to stop atrocities.
According to the 2020 report of the National Crime Records Bureau, the number of crimes against Dalits in Gujarat was 1,313. In 2019, state social justice minister Ishwar Parmar told the assembly that such crimes had increased by 32% between 2013 and 2018.
The state’s declining sensitivity
“Earlier, at least ministers would visit the victims. Now, even the tehsildar does not come. The judiciary is also openly showing bias and talking about misuse of the atrocities law — even though there is no concrete evidence of it,” says Martin Macwan, a senior Dalit activist and founder of Navsarjan Trust, Dalit Shakti Kendra and Dalit Foundation.
“In Gujarat, BJP’s Dalit and tribal MLAs have also failed to put pressure on the state government,” he says.
As the numbers mount and victims seek justice, the question arises — is Gujarat’s ‘development model’ only for a few? Or is the state claiming to move ahead while leaving behind its most deprived citizens?
The above report was originally published on The Wire website.
Courtesy: Hindi News
