In the last four days, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has taken cognisance of three alleged crimes against Dalits in Rajasthan, including the death of a Dalit boy in Jalore after he was allegedly beaten by his school teacher. The NCSC is now preparing to undertake a State review on complaints of atrocities against Dalits in Rajasthan.
The latest two instances where the NCSC took notice of such crimes came on Wednesday, hours after Rajasthan’s Resident Commissioner in Delhi and other State government officials appeared before Vijay Sampla, Chairman of the NCSC to explain the action they had taken so far in the Jalore case and submit a report in that regard.
In their reply to the NCSC’s notice, the authorities in Rajasthan said they had registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and arrested the accused teacher Chhail Singh on August 14. They added that an application for compensation of ₹5 lakh to the victim’s family under the Chief Minister’s fund had been approved and that a compensation of ₹4.12 lakh under the SC/ST Act had been disbursed to the family. The State government also said they are making provisions to provide for the education of the victim’s two minor siblings aged 13 and 15 years, Mr. Sampla said on Wednesday.
The NCSC Chairman added that officials from Rajasthan were questioned about several aspects of the investigation. The State government said in their report that the victim was bleeding from his ear on July 20, the day his teacher allegedly beat him up. Following this, he went home and was eventually taken to four hospitals with each discharging him after a brief recovery, until the fourth hospital transferred him to the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, where he died during treatment on August 13.
In addition to this case, the NCSC on Wednesday issued a notice to the Rajasthan government, seeking an action-taken report within seven days on media reports of a 43-year-old vegetable seller/labourer in Alwar district’s Rambas village being lynched by a mob that suspected him of having stolen their tractor.
This notice was issued taking cognisance of a media report of the said incident tweeted by BJP I-T chief. Neither the tweet nor the report referred to or mentioned the caste identity of the victim, Chiranji Lal and nor have the police disclosed it. The police have arrested seven men for the murder so far.
NCSC sources said, “The commission will get to know about this when the Rajasthan government replies.”
The third instance of the NCSC taking note of a crime came late on Wednesday night, when Mr. Sampla tweeted a news report of a 32-year-old woman Dalit teacher in Jaipur’s Raisar village being burnt alive by some men who owed her money. The NCSC directed the Rajasthan police to submit an action-taken report in the matter as soon as possible. The reports said that the woman had lent around ₹2 lakh to the accused men and had been asking for it back for a while. Mr. Sampla in his tweet said, “Such instances are being reported every day. Rajasthan police must fulfil their duties with the utmost attention and responsibly.”
This comes as the NCSC is preparing to undertake a State-wide review exercise of complaints of atrocities against Dalits, based on what Mr. Sampla earlier in the day called “regular complaints” of such nature.
“As per schedule, we will begin our State review of Rajasthan on August 24-25 and this review will be conducted district-wise,” he said.
A State review entails a detailed inquiry into the state of action taken regarding prevention of atrocities, payment of compensation to victims of atrocities, action taken regarding prohibition of manual scavenging, etc. It also looks at the penetration of schemes meant for the welfare of SCs, Central Sector Schemes, Central Schemes & State Sector Schemes, other GOI schemes like PMAY, Ujjawala, Mudra, Stand Up, Jan Dhan, MNREGA etc.
He added that several complaints have been received about caste discrimination in government schools - especially while serving mid-day meals. “Complaints have come from districts like Barmer and Pali and all of this will be looked into during the review.”
The NCSC had last month conducted a review of atrocities against Dalits in four select districts in Rajasthan - Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Udaipur - which led to the commission scheduling its State-wide review for August.
