Casteism, India’s biggest bane
Just as the country was gearing up to revel in the 75th Independence Day celebrations, news came in of a nine-year-old Dalit boy who died 24 days after he was assaulted by a teacher in his school in Jalore district of Rajasthan for allegedly touching a pot of drinking water “reserved for higher caste teachers”.
The incident took place at a private school on July 20, when the teacher took exception to the student of Class III touching the earthen pot and drinking water from it. Boy’s father alleged that the teacher severely beat his son and threw casteist slurs at him.
Few months ago in month of April, eight youths were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli after a viral video showed a Dalit teenager being assaulted, humiliated and made to lick the feet of one of the accused.
These are just a few examples of incidents that have got reported in the media. There are scores of such incidents happening on a daily basis in the country that go unreported. Casteism remains a huge blot on the country. The atrocities against the Dailts and Scheduled Tribes vary from discrimination to killings.
According to National crime Records Bureau 2021 (NCRB) data, in 2020, 50,291 cases were registered for crimes committed against Scheduled Castes (SCs), an increase of 9.4 per cent over 2019 (45,961 cases).
The crime rate had increased from 22.8 per lakh population to 25 per lakh population. The NCRB data stated that 16,543 cases of “simple hurt” formed the largest chunk (32.9 per cent) of cases of crimes or atrocities against SCs during 2020. It was followed by cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (4,273 cases or 8.5 per cent) and cases under criminal intimidation (3,788 cases or 7.5 per cent).
The data showed that another 3,372 cases were lodged for rape, 3,373 for assault on women with intent to outrage modesty, 855 for murder and 1,119 for attempted murder
A total of 8,272 cases were registered for committing crime against Scheduled Tribes (STs), showing an increase of 9.3 per cent over 2019 (7,570 cases). The crime rate registered increased from 7.3 per lakh population in 2019 to 7.9 per lakh population in 2020, the NCRB, which functions under the Union home ministry, stated.
It showed that during 2020, simple hurt cases (2,247) formed the highest number of cases of crimes or atrocities against STs accounting for 27.2 per cent of cases, followed by rape with 1,137 cases (13.7 per cent) and assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty with 885 cases (10.7 per cent).
In 2018, the country had recorded 42,793 cases of crimes against SCs and 45,961 in 2019, with Uttar Pradesh topping the charts among states and Union Territories in both the years, the data showed.
Among states and UTs, the highest of 12,714 cases (25.2 per cent) of crimes against SCs in 2020 were from Uttar Pradesh followed by 7,368 (14.6 per cent) in Bihar, 7,017 (13.9 per cent) in Rajasthan, 6,899 (13.7 per cent) in Madhya Pradesh and 2,569 (5.1 per cent) in Maharashtra, it showed.
This shows that even after 75 years of independence, the country remains trapped in the clutches of casteism. A country which aspires to be a superpower and takes pride in being a “vibrant democracy”, can’t allow such primitive practices to downgrade itself.
There is no point in having a Dalit President or a tribal President if the impact of it does not percolate to the ground level. India is a pluralistic society and that’s its strength.
The era of Brahminical culture is gone. There is nothing called caste supremacy now. Rather, it shouldn’t be existing anymore considering that we are a Republic and our constitution calls for equality and justice. Modernity does not reflect from clothes or gizmos we use. It reflects society’s actions. There is no point spending lakhs on education when we can’t even treat our brothers and sisters with dignity.
Courtesy : Herald Goa
Note: This news piece was originally published in heraldgoa.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights .