Less Than 2% Dalit Rape Victims Get Justice: Study

Violence against women is again up for debate after the ghastly Hathras incident in Uttar Pradesh. If women are from disadvantaged communities, there is a greater probability of sexual violence with them. 10 Dalit women had to bear the brunt of rape every day in 2019, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

The conviction rate in rape cases in the country is only 27.8 percent, but if the victim is a Dalit, then this rate is reduced to less than 2 percent. In simple terms, if the rape victim is a Dalit woman, then it is very difficult for them to get justice.

An international organisation International Dalit Solidarity Network made this claim in 2018 in a study that has been released on violence against Dalit women. The same report says, 70 percent of Dalit women who suffered sexual violence were victimised because they talked about their rights and raised their voices against the casteist practice that has been going on for generations.

In a bid to ‘teach a lesson’ to Dalit women, the domineering people assaulted, raped, murdered, and even paraded victims naked around the village. According to this research, the reason behind not punishing the culprits in the violence against Dalit women is the lack of police report and the impact of casteism on the entire justice system.

The situation is so bad that a common Dalit woman lives about 15 years less than another ordinary Indian woman. The report also claimed that a Dalit woman earns half of the wages compared to a non-Dalit person in the country. Also, the dropout rate of Dalit girls is almost double the national average. For example, in the country where the average school dropout rate is 37 percent, this rate is 67 percent among Dalit girls.
 
In such a situation, it is important that the government should not only take strict action against such incidents but also take concrete steps to curb such abominable crime.