‘Dhol Gawanr Shudra Pashu Nari, Sakal Tadan ke Adhikari’
The above statement was given by Tulsidas. That kind of mentality exists till today.
This inhuman Caste mentality leads to brutalities, caste based discriminations, mass murders, and various other injustices by the upper castes. These day to day inhuman acts have been established within the Caste structure and the same can be affected generation after generation. The Dalits are identified as the most affected communities as they reside on the lowest of the Caste structure.
The Dalits are identified as the most vulnerable communities who are denied their basic human rights. They are denied educational, economic and harsh social rights.
Valmiki Communities are the communities within the Dalits who are forced to do the manual scavenging profession. This professional culture is imposed generation after generation deprived of technological advancements. They are suppressed and meant to be the weakest of all, so they are easily targeted for maximum Caste atrocities and discriminations.
Hathras Rape Case:
Our sister who belonged to the Valmiki Community was brutally raped, her tongue was cut, her neck was badly hurt and her spine was broken. The incident is from a village in Chandpa of Aligarh division in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh. On dated 14th September, 2020, Our sister was gathering animal feed with her mother from the field. Sandip, Ravi and their 3 friends from Thakur Communities(Upper Castes) forcefully take our sister to the nearby field and gang rape her. The inhumane does not stop there. All the Rapists try to kill her by cutting her tongue, breaking her neck and her spine. She was admitted to the Hathras hospital. Officers and media persons came to take her statement on the incident. She describes the inhumane acts that almost killed her and hurt her badly. She was struggling for her life and still her treatment was yet to be started. Due to her worsening conditions, she was referred for Aligarh Hospital. There too she was not treated as expected. Lastly she took her last breath on 29th September 2020.
We question,” What does the whole incident signify?”
Living in Caste Discriminated Structure, it is foolish to limit the incident on to the gang-rape and killing. Cutting the tongue signifies that you cannot express the torture to others. You are forced to shut your mouth. Its hard to imagine about such worse incidents our Dalit sisters are victimized under the Caste tyranny.
If our sister would have received good medical treatment at the right time, she would have been alive today. Why didn’t she receive so? Doesn’t this show the non-responsibility of various sectors or facilitators due to their Caste mentalities. Why has the media and the government officials mum firstly on the incident. Is the government focused on dalits only for vote banks? This is a question about the lack of willpower. Individuals accountability Government and officials are not fulfilling their responsibilities proactively and fairly. Their accountability does influence both the social and the caste structures. Getting justice seems far fetched. Access to justice or resources of our depressed classes has not been achieved even today.
Our Indian constitution allows every citizen of India to live a respectful and dignified life as Human Rights. Reservation has given social, economic form to the Dalits, downtrodden, deprived, socially, economically backward communities of the country. With such promising laws, why isn’t the cruelty and brutalities not stopping against Dalits, downtrodden, deprived, socially, economically backward communities. What is the blur part that after such efforts the cases increase?
Attacking women from the communities is easy under the caste structure. This worse brutalities by upper castes, can be easily understood by the incidents as recorded under PoA Acts. We are always victimized like Kharlanji and sometimes like Hathras. Those are the recorded cases that we have access to. But under the caste system, we really have no idea how many might have never been recorded or brought out in public forums. The incidents are so brutal that they bring fear, awe and danger not only to the victim’s family, theri relatives but the whole community. Thus the victim or the victim’s family hardly dare to file a case against. They are used to the whole social and political power acting to suppress that community’s voices.
The National Crime Record Bureau reports of 2019 as follows:
Although various national and international forums questions about the crimes against Women, but it is important to note and more question about the Dalit and deprived women justice. If the voices are raised, how much does it effectively reform the laws and orders? If it is effective, why isn’t it visible to us?
We can see the disparities of media on such rape cases. The Nirbhaya and Priyanka Reddy rape cases were the headlines, but why are our dalit cases not so? Those campaigns and protests headlines are justified and the rapists are hung or encountered as rapid justice. But these kinds are never justified so easily for our Dalit women. It is important to question the number of representations in the media and the women National and International Organization.