Caste-based atrocities on the rise in State: Study

NT Correspondent

Caste-based atroci[1]ties in the state have more than doubled in the last three years and activists claim many cases still go unreported, despite increased awareness. Quite often, the upper castes resort to violence over trivial issues. In March, M.S. Sunil Kumar, a Scheduled Caste youth, was al-legedly assaulted by upper caste men for merely staring at them at Malenahalli in Belur taluk of Hassan district in Karnataka. The alleged incident took place on March 30, this year. Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated incident. According to the data by the Social Welfare Department (SWD), Karnataka recorded 2,582 cases of caste atrocity in 2021, while 949 cases were reported in 2019. So far, 704 cases have been reported in 2022. According to the data, Bengaluru urban reported 35 cases, and Bengaluru Rural reported 18 cases so far in 2022. Manohar Ranganathan of the Dalit Human Rights Foundation says that even after increasing awareness in the Dalit community, many cases still go unreported. “We can’t trust these numbers, because many cases are still not reported. Caste-based violence happens in universities and jobs also, where things are not seen from the caste lens by the police, and hence this number is not the exact representation,” he said. The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is enacted to pre[1]vent atrocities and hate crimes against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Act deals with offences like caste-based violence, discrimination and exploitation perpetrated against SC and ST. Manohar also adds that the proposition in the Atrocities Act is very ambiguous. “The Act has usage of words like ‘intent’ and ‘insult’, which adds a lot of ambiguity to the act. So it becomes difficult for people to deter[1]mine if a complaint can be registered or not,” he said. Clifton Rozario, a lawyer, says that most of the time, the police are not willing to register a case. “If violence is inflicted towards a person who doesn’t have social capital, chances are that the police will not file a case. Especially, when a powerful party has inflicted the violence,” he said. Arunkumar, the deputy director of coordination in the SWD, said the department had conducted several programmes for the victims. “The department has even published a handbook for the police so that they won’t make any mistakes in filing the atrocity cases. We also have come up with a plan to deal with such cases, including measures like periodic visits to unsafe zones and meeting people of the community and finding out about their problems,” he said.