Protecting the rights of Dalits and Adivasis

Our country also has specific laws that guard against the discrimination and exploitation of marginalised communities.

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) ACT, 1989

The Act provides for protest against the domination and violence of the powerful castes. This Act was framed in 1989 in response to demands made by Dalits and others that the government must take seriously the ill-treatment and humiliation Dalits and tribal groups face in everyday.

During the 1970s and 1980s, in parts of southern India, a number of assertive Dalit groups came into being and asserted their rights - they refused to perform their so-called caste duties and insisted on being treated equally; they refused to follow practices located in the humiliation and exploitation of Dalits.

This resulted in the more powerful castes unleashing violence against them. Dalit groups demanded new laws that would list the various sorts of violence against Dalits and prescribe stringent punishment for those who indulge in them.

1. This Act contains a very long list of crimes, The Act does not only describe terrible crimes but also lets people know what dreadful deeds human beings are capable of. In this sense, laws such as these seek to both punish as well as influence the way we think and act.
2. The Act distinguishes several levels of crimes. Firstly, it lists modes of humiliation that are both physically horrific and morally reprehensible and seeks to punish those who commit heinous crimes against Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
3. Secondary, it lists actions that dispossess Dalits and Adivasis of their meager resources or which force them into performing slavery.
4. At another level, the Act recognizes that crimes against Dalit and tribal women are of a specific kind and, therefore, seeks to penalize anyone who assaults or uses force on any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonor her.

Adivasi Demands and the 1989 ACT

Adivasi activists refer to it to defend their right to occupy land that was traditionally theirs. Adivasis are often unwilling to move from their land and are forcibly displaced. Activists have asked that those who have forcibly encroached upon tribal lands should be punished under this law.

Act merely confirms what has already been promised to tribal people in the Constitution - that land belonging to tribal people cannot be sold to or bought by non-tribal people. In cases where this has happened, the Constitution guarantees the right of tribal people to repose their land.

Adivasi activists, have also pointed out that one of the violators of Constitutional rights guaranteed to tribal people are governments in the various states of India -for it is they who allow non-tribal encroachers to forcibly evict tribal people from their traditional forests in the process of declaring forests as reserved or as sanctuaries.

The government must draw up plans and policies for living and working elsewhere. After all, governments spend large sums of money on building industrial or other projects on lands taken from tribals - so why should they be reluctant to spend even very modest amounts on rehabilitating the displaced ?

Conclusion

The existence of a right or a law or even a policy on paper does not mean that it exists in reality. People have had to constantly work on or make efforts to translate these into principles that guide the actions of their fellow citizens or even their leaders. In a democratic society, similar processes of struggle, writing, negotiation, and organizing need to continue.