Thousands of people joined a protest rally led by the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) in Delhi on Wednesday, 21 March 2018, demanding the revival of the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan in its true letter and spirit, and protesting violence against Dalits in the country.
The protest march started from Jantar Mantar and culminated at the Parliament Street, where a public meeting was held.
The speakers at the rally said that crimes against Dalits in India are taking place at the rate of one every 15 minutes. According to official statistics, six Dalit women are raped every day. A 66 per cent increase in atrocities against Dalits has taken place in the ten-year period from 2007 to 2017.
The past four years since the BJP came to power at the centre have seen a worsening of the situation, with a further spike in anti-Dalit violence. The imposition and promotion of Hindutva by the ruling BJP has led to increased communal divide.
Ram Chandra Dome, General Secretary of the DSMM, said in his speech that the situation in West Bengal has worsened after the TMC came to power. Rapes, violence against Dalits and Adivasis are increasing in the state, while the government is seen as protecting criminals openly. He called upon DSMM activists to bring more and more people together to counter such attacks. Dome criticised the Modi government for not fulfilling its promise to provide jobs to Dalit youth.
Subhashini Ali, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) and Vice-President of the DSMM lambasted the Modi-led BJP government for diluting the SC Sub-Plan. She demanded that the SC Sub-Plan be revived, with increased allocation that is necessary for the welfare and development of Dalits. She said that data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) is shocking – it shows that rapes against Dalit women have doubled in number in the last ten years. Uttar Pradesh is leading as far as atrocities against Dalits are concerned, with the State accounting for 17 per cent of such crimes in India. In Rajasthan, more than half of the total crimes in the State have a Dalit victim. Bihar too has an abysmal record, with two out of every five crimes committed being against Dalits.
The protesters demanded that repression, violence and discrimination against Dalits in the country should be stopped. The culprits of Bhima Koregaon should be arrested, and innocent Dalit activists should be released immediately. They also demanded that Chandrasekhar Azad, Sonu and Shiv Kumar of the Bhim Army should be released without any pre-conditions.
PK Sreemathy, Lok Sabha MP from the CPI(M), addressed the gathering in solidarity, and pledged to support the demands of the DSMM in the Parliament. She called upon the DSMM to mobilise more people to strengthen the struggles against discrimination and violence against Dalits.
Nathu Prasad, Delhi State Secretary of the DSMM, said that increasing crimes against Dalits reveal a mindset that is deeply entrenched in caste society; a mindset with a sense of superiority arbitrarily granted at birth. This deeply regressive thinking is barbaric and savage in nature, he said.
Provision of employment to all Dalit youth, extension of reservations to private enterprises, lifting of ban in government jobs at all levels, provision of education to all Dalit children, and increase in scholarships for needy students formed part of the demands of the protest. The DSMM also demanded land for Dalit families, and steps to ensure food security and housing to each Dalit household.
Samuel Raaj, Vice-President of the DSMM and General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) presided over the protest meeting. Brinda Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, K Somaprasad, Rajya Sabha MP and Kerala State Secretary of the Pattika Jaathi kshema Samithi (PKS), and V Srinivasa Rao, CPI(M) Central Committee member and Vice-President of the DSMM addressed the meeting.
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