SC/ST Act: SC ruling to have bad effect on reporting crimes against Dalits

A crime is committed against a Dalit every 15 minutes. Six Dalit women are raped every day. Over the last ten years (2007-2017), there has been a 66% growth in crimes against Dalits. Further, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on which the Supreme Court’s March 20 judgment is based itself shows that rapes of Dalit women have doubled in the last ten years. NCRB data also says that chargesheets were filed in as many 78% cases, which means the argument that false cases are being filed out of ‘vengeance’ is flawed.

Though shocking, these figures are only the tip of the iceberg of the actual number of incidents since most Dalits generally do not muster enough courage to register cases for fear of retaliation by the higher castes. Even on relatively rare occasions in which a case reaches court, the most likely outcome is acquittal due to caste biases at every stage of investigation and trial. Due to these biases, Dalits, the poor and the minorities are over-represented on the list of death rows. Studies have shown a similar pattern in respect of black convicts in the US.