INDIA: Another forced displacement due to caste based discrimination

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Navsarjan, a human rights organisation working on Dalit rights in Gujarat, about a Dalit woman and her son beaten by upper caste persons, resulting in 18 days admission to a hospital. The perpetrators have prohibited the victims from using common land unlawfully occupied by the perpetrators. The perpetrators accused by the victims were released on bail, which allows them to continue to assault the victims. Fearing constant violence by the upper caste persons, the victim’s family along with four other Dalit families had to leave their village in March, 2008. These five Dalit families, now camping in front of the District Collector’s office, demand a place to live in security. However, no government authorities have yet taken any substantive action.

CASE DETAILS:

On 22 February, 2008, Ms. Vali Kessa Dorya (age 40) and her son Naresh Kessa Dorya (age 18) were seriously beaten by four upper caste persons: Mr. Arvind Singh, Mr. Babubhai, Mr. Mahipat Singh, and Mr. Hamir Singh, who belong to the upper caste Darbar community of Gautamgadh village, Muri Block in Surendranagar district. These four perpetrators used hard wooden sticks and a hockey stick, capable of inflicting grievous injury and death. (Please see picture 1)

The perpetrator Arvind allegedly has illegally encroached upon the common land of the village, prohibiting the Vankar community (Dalit, Scheduled Caste) members from passing through or using the land. According to the villagers, a few years ago, the village head of Gautamgadh village announced that the land was common land for all villagers. However, the perpetrators have occupied the land, using it to grow and harvest crops. Since then, the victim Vali and her family, who live next to the land, were abused and assaulted by Arvind, and prevented from dropping waste water on that land. Other Dalits in the village also have been prevented from approaching the land.

A few days before the incident, Arvind came to the victim Vali’s house and verbally abused Vali, her two sons and daughter-in law working at home. On the day of the incident, while Vali’s husband was out working in the field, Arvind along with three other Darbars came to Vali’s house again and brutally beat Vali and her son with wooden sticks and a hockey stick with intention to seriously injure them. After Vali’s husband came back from the field, he immediately took his wife and son to a hospital near the village, but then had to take them to the district hospital as they were seriously injured. For 18 days, Vali and her son were admitted at the C.J. hospital, a semi-government hospital run by an NGO. The victims have paid INR 15,000 (USD 350) for medical expenses such as X-rays and medical treatment including admission and medicines, even though they were hospitalised at a semi-government hospital.

The next day, 23 February, the Muri Block Police Station registered a First Information Report (FIR), number I 24/08 against the four Darbars. The crime was registered in the FIR under the Indian Penal Code 1860, Section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506(2) (If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc) and 114 (Abettor present when offence is committed); The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 Section 3(1)(x) (intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view). The four accused were arrested for a few days, but were soon released on bail, which allowed the accused to again abuse and assault the victims and their family. The case is pending in court.

Despite the constant assaults and abuse by the accused, the victims and their family could neither call for police protection nor lodge another complaint, as they know that the local police either belong to the upper caste community or have had links to the upper caste members of the village for many years. As the dispute continued, some Vankar community members feared that they would meet the same fate as other Dalits murdered or raped by upper caste members. Five families out of the total 60 families from the Vankar community were forced to leave the village, suffering from repeated assault by the accused, and fearing even more heinous results to come.

On 25 March, 2008, the five Vankar families moved to their relatives’ houses located in Joravarnagar, Ganpat fatak, 22 kilometers away from Gautamgadh village. Before long, on 2 April 2008, twenty senior villagers of Gautamgadh village along with government officials made a compromise under several conditions. The twenty villagers consisted of seven Darbar community members (upper caste), one Bharvad (shepherd caste, non-Dalit) community member and 12 Vankar community members, while the Deputy Superintendent of Police Mr. Parmar, Local Crime Branch official Mr. Bala, Police Sub-inspector Mr. Dhadhal, Vadhavan Block Development officer Mr. Joshi, and Resident Deputy Collector Mr. Palshana also attended.

The conditions for the compromise are as follows. 1) If encroachment over the land is discovered, the accused must immediately give it up. 2) Waste water flowing into the Dalits houses should be prevented. 3) Six months of food must be provided by the government for those families suffering from poverty.  4) Expenses for the medical treatment of the two victims should be provided by the government.  5) The accused is prohibited from approaching the victim’s house. 6) The Vankar community should be provided with a water pipe to supply drinking water.

Since none of these conditions were fulfilled, and the accused continued to occupy the land, on 21 April 2008, the five families had to leave the village again. They stayed at their relatives’ houses as before until 12 May 2008, when they became pavement dwellers in front of the District collector’s office, calling for their right to life and security. (See picture 2. the five Dalit families staying in front of the District Collector’s office) (See picture 3. the Dalit kids sleeping in the street)

Two victims who have been hospitalised for 18 days received INR 10,000 (USD 233) for relief under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules 1995. However, the relevant authorities failed to protect the five families who were forced to leave the village seeking their security and peace. According to Navsarjan, both the local government and the police authority denied the fact that these five families, including the victims’ family, were forcibly displaced in fear of constant assault by the accused, and further believe that the rest Dalits in the village live in safety.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

Caste-rooted hatred and untouchability against the Dalits continuously produces routine violence in Indian society. This violence sometimes results in the most tragic murders, which often threatens the security of the entire Dalit community. This case also began with a land encroachment issue, and a demand that certain people do not approach the land, which seems to be a relatively minor dispute between neighbors. However, the continuous insults and assaults at the hands of the upper caste persons progressed to more grievous injury against Dalit members of the community committed by an upper caste group. This type of caste-rooted violence has been revealed in previous Urgent Appeals of the AHRC. For more details, please refer to AHRC-UAC-077-2008 and AHRC-UAC-087-2008.

One of the main factors reinforcing the consistency of this type of caste violence is the police authority’s neglect and failure to provide protection to the Dalit victims. This case illustrates that at the very beginning, when the police registered the FIR against the upper caste accused, the police authority failed to protect the victims. The police seem to have intentionally ignored the fact that the four accused used dangerous weapons–thick, hard wooden sticks and a hockey stick, capable of inflicting grievous injury or death–in their assault against a woman and teenaged boy. The gravity of the weapons is reflected in the fact that these two victims were seriously injured by the weapons, resulting in a hospital admission of 18 days.

Instead of applying the Indian Penal Code Section 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means; non-bailable crime) and 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means; non-bailable crime) to the crimes in the FIR, the police merely mentioned Section 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt; bailable crime) and 325 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt; bailable crime). 

The question that obviously follows is whether wooden sticks and a hockey stick are capable of being classified as being ‘dangerous weapons’? It is here the incident; the modus of assault and the nature of the assailant and the victim become relevant. The assailants in this case assaulted a boy and a woman with a hockey stick and wooden sticks, with an intention to cause hurt. The attack resulted in the hospitalisation of the victims for 18 days, which means the injuries that were caused were serious in nature. The operation of Sections 324 and 326 in cases where the weapon used is of such nature that it does not fit squarely into the generic definition provided for ‘dangerous weapon’ in these Sections, it is imperative for the investigating officer to verify the nature of the injuries caused, the intention and the subjects involved — the assailant and the victim — to come to a tenable conclusion whether the weapon was used in a dangerous manner as to attract the scope of Section 324 and 326. It is this duty that the investigating officers in this case have failed to perform.   

The failure of the police in accurately charging crimes against the upper caste accused led to a reduction in the gravity of the crimes, which allowed the accused to be released on bail. As a result, the upper caste accused continued to assault the Dalit victims, and five families had no choice but to leave their homes and village.

Such irresponsible and dangerous omissions by the police when registering an FIR against upper caste persons are not the exception–they are the rule; in case after case, police neglect to include the most serious crimes in the FIR despite their clear applicability, in particular when the victims are Dalits.

Given this situation, as the relevant government authorities fail to resettle the five Dalit families including the victims’ family, infringing on their right to life and the right of every citizen to reside and settle in any part of the country as enshrined in the Indian constitution (article 21 and article 19(1)(e) respectively) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (article 6). The government is obligated to protect the entire Dalit community to which the victims belong in order to prevent other atrocities in the future, as emphasized by the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 Section 14.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities named below expressing your concern in this. Please make a note that police authority and law enforcement agency failed to protect the victims from the alleged perpetrators.

The AHRC has also written separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, and Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced person calling for an intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER