Outraged at the attitude of Maharashtra government towards a tribal woman who had been beaten up and paraded naked on the streets of a village 16 years ago, the Supreme Court has sought to redeem some honour to a member of the marginalised and oppressed society by directing that the perpetrators be fined and sent to jail for three months.
Outraged at the attitude of Maharashtra government towards a tribal woman who had been beaten up and paraded naked on the streets of a village 16 years ago, the Supreme Court has sought to redeem some honour to a member of the marginalised and oppressed society by directing that the perpetrators be fined and sent to jail for three months.
The state didn’t challenge the acquittal of the accused by the trial court on the charge of committing atrocities on a woman belonging to the Bhil tribe and also scoffed at the court for resorting to technicalities like her caste certificate not being produced to establish that she was a tribal.
Talking of the plight of victim Nandabai, now 40, a bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said her case furnishes a typical instance of how many in India have been treating the tribals who now constitute about 8% of our total population.
“The mentality of our countrymen towards these tribals must change, and they must be given the respect they deserve as the original inhabitants of India’’, the bench said.
Judges said that Maharashtra Bhils were “mercilessly persecuted in the 17th century”.
“If a criminal was caught and found to be a Bhil, he or she was often killed on the spot. Historical accounts tell us of entire Bhil communities being killed,” the apex court said.
That’s why Bhils retreated to the strongholds of the hills and forests.
Tribals in India were slaughtered in large numbers, and the survivors and their descendants were degraded, humiliated, and all kinds of atrocities were inflicted on them for centuries. Now, some people are trying to deprive them even of their forest and hill land, and the forest produce on which they survive, the court said.
The court added that instances like the one that happened with Nandabai “deserve total condemnation and harsh punishment”.
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