According to the Hindu religious belief, “All human beings are not born equal.”This creates caste-based discrimination against Dalits, which is then open to various forms of violence against them, which include public humiliation, torture, rape, beating, and killing, etcetera.
The untouchability is the basis for atrocities and violence, denial of basic needs, land rights, legal discrimination, infringement of civil liberties, inferior or no people status, de-humanizing living and working conditions, impoverishment, mal-nourishment, bad health conditions, high levels of illiteracy and continuing social ostracism is continue to the reason for human rights violations against dalits (3).
Even today, in rural India, Dalits are prevented from most common 158 social activities such as sharing water, food and drinks. They are barred from wearing shoes when meeting high caste Hindus. They are not allowed to cycle through village streets in which higher caste people live. They can be publicly dehumanized by small crimes such as shooing away a chicken, dogs, and other pets that belong to higher caste people. They are discriminated against, denied access to land, forced to work in the most degrading conditions, and are routinely abused by the hands of the police and higher caste Hindus who enjoy government protection. Most Dalits continue to live in precarious conditions and are not allowed to use the same well, visit the temples, drink from the same cups in tea stalls or even cannot claim the land that legally belongs to them. Most Dalits continue to live in extreme poverty, without land, and they lack opportunities for better employment and education (Narula; Ambedkar, Annihilation).
According to the National Commission of Human rights of India, more than 62,000 human rights violations are recorded annually. On average, two Dalits are assaulted every hour, three Dalit women and children are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and at least two Dalits are tortured or burned every day (Narula; National Commision n.pag). Due to space, it is not possible to describe an individual human rights abuse. Following are some of the most inhuman “Human Right Violations” that took place in recent time in India. For instance, recently, five Dalits in the Northern district of India, Haryana, were lynched by a mob of 4,000 Hindus on the allegation that they skinned the cow (according to Hinduism, the cow is considered holy), as these victims denied a bribe to police. In another incident, a four-month pregnant Dalit women from Tamilnadu district (Southern part of India), was beaten by upper caste Hindus from the same village. She was stripped naked and paraded in front of the village as well as her family members. Later, police beat her in jail, which resulted in her miscarriage (Ambedkar, Annihilation).
Less than 3.5% culprits are prosecuted for such crimes, and out of 10 cases of atrocities against Dalits, only one is prosecuted. The problem is not the law; implementation is a total failure because the less than 15% high caste Hindus who control 85% of the wealth, power, justice system, police and 100% of the media. Hence, the culprits go unpunished (National Commission n.pag).
Most importantly, these violations are not only performed against Dalits, but also on other minority communities in India. For the last few years, 159 Hindu masses have been directly associated with the human rights violations against Muslims, Christians and Sikhs throughout India. For instance, Hindus killed more than 3,000 Muslims in a Mosque demolition in 1992. In 1994, more than 4,000 Sikhs in the Delhi area were killed in Communal riots. In recent years, more than 2,000 Muslims in Gujrat and hundreds of Christians have been killed (Varhade n.pag).
Source : https://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cms/narnaware.pdf
