Crime against Dalits high in land of khap panchyats
Bhartesh Singh Thakur Posted online: Thu Apr 21 2011, 09:48 hrs
Chandigarh : Crime against Dalits has been on the higher side in the
land of khap panchayats and is showing no signs of abating.
There have been 40 murders, 179 rapes and 107 cases of kidnapping and
abduction registered under the head 'Crime Against Scheduled Castes'
in Haryana from 2005 to 2009, as per National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB)'s recent report. In the same period, there have been 424 cases
registered under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 212 cases of hurt
and 10 cases of arson.
Among the well known cases are Mirchpur, where a 70-year-old man and
his handicapped daughter were torched to death on April 21 last year,
Jhajjar (where five Dalits were lynched in 2002) and Gohana (where
about 50 houses of Dalits were burnt).
In 2005, a total of 288 cases were registered as crimes against
Dalits; in 2006 the number was 283; in 2007 it was 227. But in 2008,
it jumped to 341 and in 2009 to 303.
Haryana, with a total of 1442 incidents, is also quite ahead of its
neighbouring states, with Punjab at 710, Uttarakhand at 338, Himachal
Pradesh at 397 and Jammu and Kashmir at 5, in the 2005-2009 period.
At the National Commission of Scheduled Castes' (NCSC) office in
Chandigarh , the record of the state is poor as well. It received 837
complaints from the period 2006-07 to 2010-2011(till date). The
maximum (517) among them are connected to atrocities. There are 172
complaints about being discriminated in service matters and 25 about
land matters, in the same period.
"If Dalits are alienated from the mainstream, the nation will suffer.
In Haryana, whether it is Om Prakash Chautala or Bhupinder Singh
Hooda, they want Jat votes. They are afraid of a clash and have
natural sympathy with them. Earlier also ( in 2002), five Dalits were
lynched in Jhajjar in Haryana for allegedly skinning a cow. In
Haryana, Dalits are treated worse than animals," said Dr Udit Raj,
President of Indian Justice Party. He had organised conversions in
Gurgaon on October 27, 2002 in response to the Jhajjar lynchings.
"It is a terrorism of Jat community. We are being threatened. In my
farm house 135 Dalit families are staying after leaving Mirchpur. The
government is also threatening me that the farm house is illegal. The
children of families were given admissions only after a lot of hue and
cry. Today, I was arrested by the police because they fear I would
spoil the peace in the area on April 21. The Dalits gheraoed the SP of
Hisar and then I was released," said Ved Pal Tanwar, President,
Non-Jat Organisation, who claims to represent 35 communities other
than Jats.
Prof Ronki Ram, a social scientist from Panjab University, said, "The
economic position in the regions of Haryana is changing fast.
Expectations of people are rising. The lower castes are asserting but
the dominant community is not giving them space, which is leading to
conflict."
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