Preventing entry of Dalits, tribespeople to places of worship should be made a punishable offence, says NAC
Preventing Dalits and tribespeople from entering places of worship will be made a punishable offence under legal changes proposed by the National Advisory Council (NAC), which sets the social policy for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Obstructing members of such groups from using community resources will also be made an offence under amendments proposed by the NAC, which is headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and focuses on the rights of disadvantaged sections of society.
The NAC has also recommended setting up dedicated special courts and time-bound trials for such offences under the proposed changes to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The NAC has prepared the draft recommendations for amending the 24-year-old legislation after consulting various ministries and experts and invited more suggestions from the public.
A week after the NAC prepared its recommendations, the ministry of social justice and empowerment held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the proposed amendments.
The UPA has “attached a very high priority” to effective implementation of the Act, she said.
The NAC, in the report, said atrocities against Dalits and tribespeople continue “unabated and legal justice remains out of reach for majority of victims” because of poor implementation of the Act. Conviction rates remain low and many forms of atrocities, despite being documented, are not covered by the Act.
“Victims and witnesses confront hurdles at every stage of the legal process—from registration, investigation and chargesheeting to the trial stage,” the panel said.
The 11-member panel has recommended that “obstructing the use of common property resources, causing physical harm or death on the allegation of practising witchcraft, imposing social or economic boycott, preventing entry to any place of public worship and abetment” should be made offences under the act.
The proposed amendments suggest that “parading a person naked or semi-naked, forcible tonsuring of head, removal of moustache or garlanding with footwear should be additionally included as offences…”
According to 2011 census data, scheduled castes form 16.2% of India’s totalpopulation and scheduled tribes make up 8.2%.
The draft recommendations suggested that the provision in the law that covers dispossession of SC/ST members from their land should be amended to include destruction of crops or taking away of produce belonging to them as an offence.
It also proposed expanding the scope of a provision on bonded labour to cover forcing members of these communities to remove carcasses or dig graves and designating their women as so-called Devdasis, a practice under which women are married off to deities and subjected to cruelty.
If the proposals become a law, pressurizing SC/ST candidates to withdraw their nominations in election and preventing them from holding elected posts and blocking them from doing their duties would be criminal acts.
“It is recommended that there should be new sections or sub-sections covering caste-based abuse and humiliation, harassment, hate speech, or disfigurement or defiling of symbols held sacred by the community, including statues and images,” the NAC said.
Experts are divided over the political impact of the recommendations.
B.G. Verghese, a political analyst and visiting professor at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said the recommendations were significant, downplaying their timing ahead of elections. “It is quite true that despite the existing Act, atrocities continue to take place. The NAC’s recommendation is a significant move and it has thrown up the issue for debate,” he said.
“The underlying assumption is that while in the previous elections (2009), the poor and the underprivileged stood by them, now it is about bringing more of them under the Congress fold,” Mrug said.