Over 1.8 lakh cases of crimes against Dalits registered in four years: Govt. in parliament
According to a recent report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), as many as 1,89,945 cases of crimes against the Dalit community were registered in the last four years. The government informed Parliament about this alarming statistic on Tuesday. Union minister of state for home affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra was responding to a query by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Girish Chandra, who had asked for statistics on the number of attacks on Dalits since 2018 and urged the government to mention if there was any mechanism to monitor such incidents.
It's important to note that the numbers reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) are just the registered cases of crimes against the Dalit community. The actual number of incidents may be much higher, as many police complaints of caste crime are not registered. This suggests that the problem of violence against Dalits may be even more widespread than what is officially reported.
In response, MoS Mishra noted that the NCRB had compiled and published the statistical data on crimes in its publication "Crime in India" in 2021, and the data was in reference to the same. However, he mentioned that the matters of police and public order were entirely under the state government's rule. Despite this, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had been issuing advisories to States/UTs from time to time for the effective implementation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Rules.
The alarming number of crimes against the Dalit community as reported by the NCRB has raised concerns over the need for better implementation of laws and policies to ensure their protection. While the MHA has been issuing advisories to States/UTs, it is evident that there is a need for a more concerted effort to tackle this issue. The government needs to take proactive measures to ensure that the perpetrators of such crimes are brought to justice and that the Dalit community is provided with the necessary support and protection.
