3 southern districts top the list in atrocities against Dalits in Tamil Nadu

Madurai district stands 17th in the Dalit population in Tamil Nadu, but it is ranked first in atrocities against the community. According to the data of the National Crimes Record Bureau for 2013 published recently, the district, including the city, recorded 318 cases. Next is Tirunelveli, another caste-sensitive district, with 224 cases, followed by Virudhunagar 119. Thanjavur (93) and Dharmapuri (79) are the other toppers. It is a cause for concern that the top three districts are in the south.

How does one interpret the data? Increased awareness among the downtrodden sections had enabled the victims to file police complaints. This was not the case in the past, Dalit activists say.

A. Kadir, executive director of Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO, said that of the 4,630 cases pending in courts across the State, only 106 had resulted in conviction. The police closed many cases citing “mistake of facts”. In a way, this resulted in the acquittal of the accused.

R. Satyamurthi, an advocate said that, while the police registered 4.93 lakh cases in 2013 for cognisable offences, the cases against Dalits (1,845) accounted for just 0.37 per cent.

Activists appealed to the government to speed up these cases, adopting the fast-track court model, to achieve higher conviction rates. This would embolden the weaker sections to fight oppression.

Satyamurti said that, for the murder of a Dalit, though the government had to rehabilitate the family by giving it a job or agricultural land, it was not being done. In the past 25 years, only 20 families would have got the benefits after the murder of their breadwinners.