Atrocities on the basis of caste are increasing in West Bengal, government is showing indifference on Dalit oppression
Last Friday, the National Commission of Scheduled Castes issued a letter to the Sundarbans Police of West Bengal, informing them that the National Commission of Scheduled Castes will now investigate the caste-based atrocities on Dalits in Hatuganj on December 3. This investigation will be done on the basis of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Let us tell you that on December 3, Dalit man Rabin Sardar and two children Mimi Naskar and Bijay Naskar were brutally thrashed on the basis of caste in Hatuganj of Kulpi in Sundarbans district. After which he is being treated in a hospital in Sundarbans.
A complaint was lodged by a person named Sudip Das in the National Commission of Scheduled Castes for an unbiased investigation of the incident. After which the National Commission of Scheduled Castes decided to conduct an investigation. It goes on to say that on December 3, a meeting of Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was to be held at Kanthi in Medinipur, West Bengal, while a meeting of BJP MLA Shubhendu Adhikari was to be held at Diamond Harbour. However, violence had started even before the gathering at both the places.
Shubhendu Adhikari welcomed the decision:
BJP MLA Shubhendu Adhikari has welcomed the decision of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes. He tweeted saying, “I welcome the decision taken by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to investigate the case of caste-based atrocities and inhuman physical torture on Rabin Sardar and 2 children.”
The BJP MLA has also shared some pictures and videos of meeting the victims in the hospital. Along with this, the officer wrote in a tweet that, “On December 3, in Hatuganj of Kulpi, there were TMC goons who attacked the Dalits, who were preventing them from going to the BJP rally.”
There is no schedule cast department in West Bengal.
West Bengal is the second state in India with the largest population of scheduled castes. Along with this, the population of Scheduled Tribes is also not less in West Bengal. According to the 2011 census,
the total population of Scheduled Castes in West Bengal is 2,14,63,270. Whereas the total population of Scheduled Tribes is 5,296,953.
But the amazing thing is that there is no Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes department or ministry to deal with the issues of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in West Bengal.
Professor Subhajit Naskar of Jadavpur University, Kolkata writes on the matter, “The SC Dalits of West Bengal are daily victims of caste atrocities, never reported by the local Bengali media since the dominance of Kayastha Baidya and Brahmins. Bengal, being the state with the second largest SC population in India, does not have a dedicated SC department/ministry.”
While referring to TMC’s indifference towards Dalits in his second tweet, he writes, “The state government of TMC is so indifferent to the plight of Scheduled Castes that the opposition leader of BJP needs to raise it.”
However, there will be no state in the country from where cases of atrocities on Dalits do not come to the fore. On the other hand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are at the top of such states where the condition of Dalits and Adivasis is getting worse day by day.
