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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | SC/ST Act is like an umbrella, it ensures we are safe, say Mirchpur Dalits -Niha Masih

SC/ST Act is like an umbrella, it ensures we are safe, say Mirchpur Dalits -Niha Masih

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published Published on Apr 13, 2018   modified Modified on Apr 13, 2018
-Hindustan Times

Despite a rare, legal victory, Dalits of Mirchpur are back on the streets — to fight for the SC/ST Act that helped them win a case seven years ago.

Mirchpur, Hisar (Haryana): Gulab Singh, 80, is frail and bent with age. He hobbles around with a wooden stick at the makeshift camp he lives in, outside Haryana’s Hisar city. But on April 2, defying his body and age, he marched with thousands of others for the Bharat Bandh called by Dalit groups. The nationwide protest was called in the wake of a Supreme Court order which put checks on arrests under the Scheduled Caste and Tribe Act (SC/ST Act), citing its misuse.

“We are alive due to the Act. If they take it away, do you think they [upper-castes] will spare us?” he asks. Singh is a beneficiary of the Act that won him victory in court, but is angry, because the battle for social justice is far from over. He and other Dalit families may never return to the village of Mirchpur, which has always been home.

On April 21, 2010, 18 Dalit houses, including his, were attacked by the Jats in Mirchpur, following an altercation over a barking dog. While Singh survived, his neighbour, 70-year-old Tara Chand, and his disabled teenage daughter, Suman, lost their lives in the blaze. Unlike several other high-profile cases of caste violence —in which trials have dragged on for years and resulted in acquittals —the Mirchpur case went to trial in a few months, and a judgment the following year, convicted 15 Jats of the village.

Singh’s witness testimony formed a crucial part of the case in court. But seven years after their hard-fought legal victory, the Mirchpur Dalits were forced to take to the streets once again – this time to fight for the very Act that had been instrumental in delivering them justice.

According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 130 SC/ST atrocity cases were registered every day across the country in 2016. While the Act has made it easier for the victims to register cases, it has not guaranteed justice. Only a fourth of the total cases ended in convictions while pendency was at 88%.

Ramesh Nathan, general secretary, National Dalit Movement for Justice, a group which monitors atrocity cases across the country, points to the reasons for poor conviction rates. “Poor police investigations are a big factor. Chargesheets are delayed, which often means victims and witnesses get threatened, weakening the cases. This is being interpreted as false or fake cases.”

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Hindustan Times, 12 April, 2018, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/sc-st-act-is-like-an-umbrella-it-ensures-we-are-safe-say-mirchpur-dalits/story-VU2Un2FgNcXKEDZgWwDR7O.html


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