LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: On Monday, the rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras is likely to make the headlines again when the Allahabad High Court will hear the matter for the second time. It will also be the first time a hearing will be taking place after the Supreme Court ordered the high court to monitor the case.
The Hathras incident prompted political parties to attack the BJP government both at the Centre and in the state, and induced the high court to take suo moto notice, is a typical example of an atrocity against a Dalit in western UP that makes waves unlike in other parts of the state.
Uttar Pradesh stands at the top among states when it comes to atrocities against SCs by alone accounting for over 25 per cent of the total cases reported in the country, as per the NCRB data. Police records show that the maximum crimes take place in central UP, followed by eastern while it is the least in western UP. The central region comprising 28 districts of Bundelkhand, Yadav belt and state capital Lucknow, Kanpur, Unnao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Ayodhya has the maximum crimes recorded against Dalits this year. Between January and September 30 while central UP recorded 47 per cent of such cases, western UP accounted for 22 per cent. Eastern UP’s share was 31 per cent.
Yet, it is incidents in western UP, typified by the Hathras rape-cum-murder, that stir the national conscience. The reason, experts and activists say, is because Dalits in western UP are more progressive. While they are more assertive and bold in confronting the upper caste, the region’s proximity to Delhi means such atrocities quickly grab the national media’s attention.
“In western UP, assertion is more because of the Jatavs — a sub-caste among the Dalits in the UP. Data from the colonial period shows they held a little more land, and were little more prosperous than those in eastern UP. That has continued into the post-colonial period,” said political scientist Sudha Pai. Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad’s rise has boosted Dalit assertion, she added. “In western UP, Azad has become a Dalit icon.
He is active in the SC/ST Act agitation. This has given a sense of protection to Dalits in western UP.” An analysis of the 2011 Census SC literacy data of western UP districts show that it is higher than the overall literacy rate in three districts — indicating the development parameter for Dalits. While in Rampur and Saharanpur, the SC literacy rate was recorded at 56.3 and 70.7 per cent — higher than the overall literacy rate of 53.3 and 70.5 per cent, the same in Bareilly was 59 per cent as compared to the overall literacy rate of 58.5 per cent.
In Amroha, the SC literacy rate of 63.5 per cent was almost on par with the overall literacy rate at 63.8 per cent. The gap between SC and overall literacy rate was low in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. While the overall literacy rate was 69.1 per cent in Muzaffarnagar and the SC literacy rate 67.5 per cent, the SC literacy rate in Meerut was 71.7 per cent as compared to the overall 72.8 per cent. An analysis of dilapidated SC housing as per 2011 data showed that of the total 6,62,093 such housing in UP, the share of districts in western UP was 132,686 — or around 20 per cent of the total category. Clearly, eastern and central regions have the burden of the dilapidated SC housing.
The total number of SC households in Uttar Pradesh was over 76 lakh, the Census showed. “The access to better resources, and better educational facilities in being in close proximity to Delhi has enabled Dalits assert their identities and demand equal rights,” Dalit rights activist Ashok Bharti said. These atrocities would have declined if BSP chief Mayawati had retained her Dalit ideology instead of politically re-structuring the party to gain power, observed A K Mishra, professor of political science at Lucknow University.
An incident of Dalit assertion which grabbed headlines was the 2018 Kasganj incident in which Sanjay Jatav was denied the right to ride a horse to his wedding. Despite social ostracisation, Jatav had secured the permission to ride a horse and take out a marriage procession through Thakur-dominated areas of the village. While western UP has seen a series of caste and communal clashes, including the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, the 2014 Badaun alleged gangrape of Dalit girls, the 2017 Saharanpur caste clashes, the 2018 Kasganj violence, and the 2018 killing of a Dalit youth in Meerut, rape continues to be a weapon of upper caste men to unleash violence on Dalit women, said academics.
Back in Hathras’s Boolgarhi village which is in the news since September, the threat on Dalit women is still palpable. “They (Thakurs) don’t come near us and treat us as untouchables. But they pick our daughters to rape,” said Savita Valmiki, a Dalit woman in the village where Dalits form a minuscule chunk of the population — four of the total 250 households.