The incident in which four members of a Dalit family, including toddlers, were shot inside their house last Thursday in Sudhampur, which falls within the boundaries of Gadaganj police station near Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, underscores the concern that the condition of the underprivileged in the country has reached an extremely dangerous level. A 35-year-old school teacher, Sunil Kumar, his wife Poonam, and their five and two-year-old children were shot dead by the assailant. The accused Chandan Verma was caught by the police the very next day. According to the initial report, the massacre was revenge for the police filing a case after Sunil Kumar's wife Poonam complained that she could not bear Verma's harassment. The atrocity was committed after sending a threat as a status message on WhatsApp. After complaining to the police, Poonam often expressed fear of death. She openly claimed that if anything happened to her family, Verma would be responsible. Despite these warnings, they were slain on September 30. This is not an isolated incident in a country where Hindutva heartthrob Yogi Adityanath is hailed as an instant killer of criminals. The news of the new atrocity comes before the uproar of protest over the mysterious death of two Dalit girls aged 18 and 15 in UP's Farrukhabad. The reality is that Dalits and underprivileged groups are also common victims of racial hatred and caste exploitation in UP, where the lives and property of the Muslim minority are constantly threatened.
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According to a report recently released by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of the Union Government on the violence faced by Dalit communities, Uttar Pradesh has the highest rate of violence in the country. The figures for 2022 were released last month, with the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which are ruled by the BJP, in the second and third positions respectively. Out of the total 51,656 cases reported in the country under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, 12,287 cases are in Uttar Pradesh. This is 23.78 percent of the cases of violence in the country. Rajasthan has 8,651 cases (16.75 percent). 7,732 (14.97 percent) are in Madhya Pradesh. Bihar (6509), Odisha, (2902), and Maharashtra (2276) are following behind! In BJP-ruled states, violence against Muslims is increasing in official and unofficial ways with the connivance and tacit approval of the government. This is not news. But not only Muslims, all over the country Dalits are being subjected to this kind of oppression. The recently released central government report also exposes the gross negligence of the governments. At the end of 2022, 17,166 cases of violence against Scheduled Castes and 2,702 cases against Scheduled Tribes are still pending. The practice is that many cases drag on and are eventually dismissed for various reasons. The 1989 Act mandated the establishment of special courts to deal exclusively with anti-Dalit atrocities. However, there are only 194 courts in India with 498 districts. The number of special police stations is also less. These figures indicate how much interest the central and state governments have in this regard. On November 27 last year in UP's Badaun, father Kamlesh was beaten to death by people in broad daylight after his son drank water from a public tap. The unspeakable grief lay not only in the brutal murder but in the despicable indifference of the villagers who witnessed it. A 21-year-old sexual assault survivor hung herself to death in Ambedkar Nagar, UP on August 18 because the police refused to file an FIR and she was forced to withdraw the complaint.
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Atrocities from states run by the Sangh Parivar by systematic efforts to oppress minority communities such as Dalits and Backward Castes and make them untouchable show where the Hindutva parties stand in practice. The BJP's promise in 2014 was to stop Dalit atrocities and to significantly reduce the gap with other communities in terms of human resources. It was also written that they will try to empower them socially and economically by focusing on education and entrepreneurship. How shameful is it that Dalit masses have to cry even for life and dignified life, let alone social welfare in BJP's own states, even after Modi is in power for the third time?
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