NEW DELHI: Amid widespread outrage over the gangrape and brutalisation of a Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, the government published the National Crime Records Bureau data which revealed an overall increase in crimes against Dalits with Uttar Pradesh recording the highest number of crimes against the SC population.
Crimes against women increased by over 7.3 per cent with over 4 lakh cases registered in 2019 as compared to 3,78,236 cases in 2018.
Data showed crimes against scheduled caste (SC) people increased by over 7 per cent and by 26 per cent against scheduled tribe (ST) people in 2019 as compared with 2018.
Almost 46,000 cases were registered for committing crime against SCs with Uttar Pradesh recording the highest number of such cases at 11,829 cases.
This was followed by Rajasthan with 6,794 cases, and 6,544 cases in Bihar, the report documented.
Rajasthan saw the highest number of rape cases of SC women with 554 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 537 and Madhya Pradesh at 510 cases.
Crimes against STs increased steeply with the data recording an increase by 26.5 per cent.
A total of 8,257 cases were registered for committing crime against tribal people while 2018 had recorded 6,528 such cases.
The highest number of such cases were registered in Madhya Pradesh with 1,922 cases, followed by Rajasthan, which recorded 1,797 cases and Odisha with 576 cases.
Madhya Pradesh also saw the highest number of incidents of rape of tribal women with 358 cases, followed by 180 incidents in Chattisgarh and 114 in Maharashtra.
The category of 'simple hurt' with 1,675 cases constituted the highest number of atrocities against tribal people, accounting for 20.3 per cent of the total crimes committed in 2019.
An analysis of the data by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative showed around 9 per cent of the crimes against SC people were registered only under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), and around 91 per cent were registered under the SC/ST PoA Act read with the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Dalit organisations have repeatedly expressed their concern on the ground implementation of the PoA Act. Cybercrimes saw an increase by over 63 per cent with 44,546 cases registered in 2019, the data showed.
Inhumane
7.30 pm-7.45 pm: UP Police escorts victim’s father and brother to a SUV waiting outside Safdarjung Hospital.
12.45am-1 am: Body reaches the village, but cops did not allow it to be taken to her house.
2.30-2.45 am: Ambulance carrying the body halted by villagers as the family alleged that they were being forced to do cremation at night. Cops locked the family inside their house.
3.00-3.15 am: Cremation done despite family’s request to wait till sunrise.