DALITS/SCHEDULED CASTES - 2013 - Indian Social Institute

youths were assaulted by a group of Vanniyars, for wearing the T-shirts. The same day, a case wasregistered and arrests were made on both sides. The district administration should declare Kariyampattivillage as ‘atrocity prone zone’ and arrest the accused under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, said Rajini, theadvocate representing the Dalits. Even as the Dalits in the village alleged that they were being targetedby caste Hindus on caste lines, the police and members of Vanniyar community claimed that the disputearose over a financial transaction. “We are trying to solve the issue amicably, but a few people withvested interests are trying to politicise it,” asserted Sivakumar, the advocate representing the Vanniyars.“Dalits and Vanniyars have been living in harmony for several years now. We have never discriminatedagainst them.” (The Hindu 7/10/13)Madurai tops list of dalit women facing atrocities (2)MADURAI: Chinnayi Ayyappan (55) was among the group of dalits who stridently fought non-dalits of herKoolayanur village near Bodi in Theni district after the latter refused the former to be buried in the villagegraveyard. But barely 20 days after the dalits demanded burial rights in January 2011, a group of nondalitshurled petrol bombs on her house. Four days later, she succumbed to injuries at the GovernmentRajaji Hospital in Madurai. Not all dalit women are as unfortunate as Chinnayi to die, but they endureequally harrowing experiences if one goes by a study on crimes perpetrated against dalit womenconducted by an NGO. Incidentally, more number of atrocities against dalits, are reported from southerndistricts, particularly Madurai. The study conducted by Evidence, a Madurai-based human rightsorganisation found that 124 cases of atrocities against dalit women in 25 districts of Tamil Nadu fromJanuary 2009 to September 2013. Madurai tops the list of districts with 23 cases, followed by Tirunelveliwith 13, Sivaganga 12, Virudhunagar and Theni 11 each and Dindigul 10. "These numbers pertain only tothose atrocities that were registered in police stations and pursued legally and not all incidents ofatrocities," said A Kathir, executive director, Evidence. "Thirty-six of the women were raped, eightsurvived attempts to rape and 18 suffered sexual harassment," the report said. A case in point was theplight of Thulasiammal (35), a widow who was raped by a gang of non-dalits at her house inVeerapagoundanur near Pollachi in 2010. In the same year, at Jittandahalli in Dharmapuri, a 16-year-oldgirl was molested by the school headmaster. Shockingly, seven of the 124 women have committedsuicide while 16 of them have been murdered. The study also said that the perpetrators have not targetedthe victims just once, but several times in some cases. After the Dharmapuri violence in 2012, there wasmarked increase in atrocities perpetrated against dalit women, says the study listing out 27 such incidentsthat occurred across Tamil Nadu. A senior police official said that it was wrong to paint a pictureportraying that dalit women are targeted in large numbers. "If you look at the number of atrocities againstwomen in general, dalit women would only be a small part of it," he said. "We don't discriminate atrocitiesbased on the caste of victims. We approach the cases depending on the magnitude of the offence andnot based on the victim or perpetrator," said the officer. Kathir, however, said that seldom do the policeregister cases under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. "Committees comprising human rights activities,feminists, advocates and journalists should be formed in each district to monitor atrocities against dalits,"he urged. (Times of India 9/10/13)Thousands of dalits to embrace Buddhism in Junagadh (2)The event 'Chalo Buddh Ki Aur' is being organized by Buddha Diksha Mahotsav Samiti, which claims it tobe the biggest ever in the state wherein people will take Diksha to embrace the path of Buddha. "Thiswould be first single event where around 1 lakh people would embrace Buddhism," convener of the eventDeven Vanvi said. He said people from 19 districts and 51 talukas of the state will come to Junagadh onthe occasion. "Over 30,000 families have completed the process of conversion by filling out forms andsubmitting them to respective local district administrations," Vanvi said. "The reason behind conversion ofdalits to Buddhism is the caste hierarchy that has existed for centuries. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar showed usa different path, where there is no discrimination between human beings," one of the organizers Parikshit