Incidents of violence against Dalits have seen a 35% rise in the four years since 2014. Data from the government shows that against 1,122 cases in 2014, the number of cases rose to 1,517 in the year 2017.
Till 2016, Kutch topped among districts where serious incidents of violence were reported against Dalits followed by Mehsana. It should be noted that the recent incident of an Dalit community being boycotted by villagers after a family decided to carry out a wedding procession on a horse was reported from Kadi taluka, which is part of Mehsana.
Naushad Solanki, Congress MLA from Dasada and chairman of the party's SC department in the party said that there are two main reasons - conviction rate and the message that leaders send when such incidents happen.
"Even in high profile cases like Thangadh and Una no justice has been done. The accused are out on bail or have gone scot-free. The conviction rate in atrocity cases is 3%. With such poor conviction rate who will be afraid of the law?" questions Solanki.
He said moreover, whenever such incidents happen politicians don't make it a point to come and clearly state that such incidents will not be tolerated. "These are social issues and the law alone cannot be helpful. Whenever such incidents happen top leaders of the state should make it a point to show up and clearly state that this is unacceptable. But they don't bother and it further reinforces the image that it is alright to violate the rights of Dalits," said Solanki.
He added that another genuine problem is ignorance among the people. "There is one section of upper caste that believes Dalits should behave within the limits of caste hierarchy. There is an entirely other section particularly in urban areas that don't believe that such discrimination exists or happens," said Solanki.
Dalit activist Martin Macwan said that one big reason is also 'jealousy'. It is true that Dalits face discrimination even today. But in Gujarat Dalits have made great strides in education and unlike the older generation the young blood knows their rights. "They have lived in urban areas, are educated and know that they have a right to be treated equally. As a result they are not afraid of confronting injustice head on," said Macwan.
He pointed out the recent incidents where wedding procession of Dalits faced resistance from upper caste members. "These are villages where the youth wanted to have a grand wedding. The fact that till now their community could not take out a procession did not matter to them and they insisted on doing it," said Macwan.
He said in many cases the upper caste opposing the Dalits have nothing but their so called caste superiority to hold on to. "In many areas the Dalits face trouble from Thakors who are part of the OBC. The Dalits happen to be much more educated and economically well off. So for the OBCs there is nothing else but outdated notions of caste superiority to hold on to. It often manifests in opposition to wedding processions and such," said Macwan.
"The problem is that while Dalits have got access to education similar education about equality has not been imparted to the upper caste. So while educated Dalits believe they are equal to everyone the youth of upper caste continue to hold on to caste divisions because the society has not bothered to teach them about it," said Macwan.
He said even among the upper caste, land holdings have come down and there is unemployment. This has exacerbated the situation.
