NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh may be in the limelight for the Hathras atrocity, but it is Rajasthan where crimes against Scheduled Castes steadily went up in the last three years as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) records.
Rajasthan has also seen a spurt in crimes against SC women over past years. Consequently, its capital Jaipur turns out to be the worst metropolitan city for SCs with a disproportionate share of caste-based crimes.
Though Uttar Pradesh, also the country’s most populous state, reported the highest number of crimes against Dalits in 2019 in terms of absolute number, it was Rajasthan which had the country’s highest rate of crimes against Dalits at 55.6%. In 2018, the crime rate against Dalits was 37.7% and in 2017 it was at 34.7%.
According to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau of 2019, Rajasthan registered an increase of about 50% in crimes against Dalits compared to 2018.
As many as 6,794 cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castess were reported from the state in 2019 whereas the number of such crimes was 4,607 in 2018. 2018 had also reported a surge of over 8% in comparison to 2017.
Among the 19 metropolitan cities, Jaipur fared worst in 2019, reporting the highest percentage share of crimes committed against Dalits at 20%. In 2018 Jaipur’s percentage share was 13.4% and in 2017 it was a mere 6%.
In some crimes against Dalits, Rajasthan even surpassed Uttar Pradesh, the state with highest SC population, reporting highest number of cases of ‘assault on adult women with intent to outrage her modesty’ and cases of ‘attempt to rape’ in 2019.
According to 2011 Census, Uttar Pradesh (35,148,377) has the largest Scheduled Caste population, followed by West Bengal (18,452,555) and Bihar (13,048,608).
Rajasthan has the Scheduled Castes population of 9,694,462 as per 2001 census constituting 17.2 per cent of the total population (56,507,188) of the state, as per Census 2011.
Plea by scribes’ union put off for 4 weeks
The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear after four weeks a plea of journalists’ organisation against the arrest of a scribe by UP Police in Mathura while he was on way to Hathras. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde asked the petitioner to amend the petition and observed that they should approach the Allahabad High Court for the relief. The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) had filed a habeas corpus petition in the top court against the arrest of the journalist, Sidhique Kappan. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner, that Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act charges have been added.