Dalits, alienated and angry

The sudden upsurge in violence by Dalits in Maharashtra and now in Gujarat has disturbed the socio-political structure of Indian society. E...

The sudden upsurge in violence by Dalits in Maharashtra and now in Gujarat has disturbed the socio-political structure of Indian society. Earlier, the clashes between the Dalits and Thevars a backward caste in Tamil Nadu opened a new chapter in caste violence. Such incidents are not new. In fact, they pervade recorded history. Yet each time they recur, they are inadequately understood.

The Dalits have suffered not only from economic exploitation but also from social discrimination. Despite various measures taken for the improvement of their condition, in general there has not been a significant improvement. On the land relationship and the question of surplus land distribution system, quite contrary to the claim made by the Central and various state governments, these issues continue to cause rural violence. The commission for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes has shown the existing weakness in the implementation of various programmes of the government from time to time. It has been recommended by the commission in its various reports that the actual handing over of the physical possession and surplus land to the allottee must be ensured even if it entails an amendment of the existing law. This should be made more effective in far flung rural areas.

The rapid increase in atrocity cases against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes is also due to delay in the investigation process and also because of the partism attitude of local government machinery.

A number of legislations with regard to land reforms and payment of wages have not been effectively enacted and merely remained restricted to government files. The purpose behind distribution of surplus land among the landless labourers mostly belonging to scheduled caste has not been understood properly.

Although the concept of agrarian violence is not new, it became more pronounced during 1970s due to rapid increase in naxal activities in Bihar and eastern UP districts. The land grabbing activities mostly by the intermediaries in Bihar has added new dimension to the problem of scheduled castes. The continuing problem of rural backwardness, landless agricultural labourers and industrial stagnation have further deteriorated the situation. Even after the abolition of the zamindari system the position of the lower castes did not show any significant improvement. The casteist politics in UP and Bihar has hampered the proper implementation of plan projects and ultimately resulted in widespread corruption and pathetic socio-economic situation of the lower section. Similarly, the benefits of various programmes for development went to the dominant castes, as a result the lower castes continued to remain landless labourers.

It has been found during the investigation of atrocity cases that only one third of the total criminal cases are officially recorded, rest of them are manipulated by the powerful syndicate of various castes. This is more so in UP and Bihar. Similarly, there are a number of land dispute cases still pending in courts with no hope of their getting resolved in near future.Field survey of caste violence-prone areas suggests that violent activities occur where development work and wages are very low. Over 85 per cent of the scheduled caste population is engaged in agriculture, fisheries, scavenging, grave digging and other petty occupations.

The benefits of various development programmes were grabbed by the elite among scheduled castes and still a majority of them continue to live in very poor condition particularly in rural areas of UP and Bihar. Whereas the cost of maintaining the welfare of the rural poor rises inexorably year after year in files, in practice the benefits of these programmes never reach the needy.

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The government and the non-governmental organisations should try their best to eliminate and reduce the feeling of alienation among the Dalits through effective legislative and constitutional measures, appropriate reservation policy, education, balanced economic changes and a number of welfare measures particularly at the grassroots level.

The writer is on the faculty of the Centre For Policy Research, New Delhi