In another case of discrimination against people of low caste, a Dalit groom, accompanied by his wedding party, was prevented from sitting on the mare citing religious sentiments in Madhopura village of Rajasthan by members of the Jat community.

On April 20, as the procession for of Lakshmi’s wedding reached Dudu Thana area of the village, the Jats created a ruckus and restricted the groom from continuing on his mare. 

While Raju Lal, father of the bride and other people from the Dalit community opposed this and called the police, the Jats said the Dalit groom cannot sit on the mare in front of the temple. After the police intervened, it was decided that the bridegroom will not be perched on the mare while passing the temple. As a result, the groom had to descend 50 metres ahead of the temple and cross the temple on foot before getting back on the mare.

Two days after the incident, on April 22, Lal's son Dinesh was getting married. The people of the Jat community of the village protested against the groom's bindoli—the departure of the wedding party with the groom sitting on the mare—and the owner of the mare was threatened and prevented from entering the village.

After the two such incidents this year, the Dalit community faced a collective social boycott in the village—situated 85 kilometres from state capital Jaipur—by the upper-caste community. The shopkeepers refused to give the goods to the Dalits, the barbers refused to give them a haircut, the milkmen stopped supplying milk to their houses and water tanker owners refused to provide water to them. The Dalit community has alleged that the Jat community threatened to vandalise the water tankers coming from other villages.

In May, members of the Jat community beat up Lal's wife and Dinesh. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed against 17 members of the Jat community and the case is under trial at the special SC-ST court in Jaipur.

Raju Lal, a resident of Raigar basti (illegal settlement), said he built the temple where Dalits are not allowed. He informed that after the rituals and installation of the deity, Dalits were prevented from entering the temple by the upper-caste community citing the social hierarchy.

Chhagan Lal, a Dalit resident of Raigar basti, said they are made to sit on the ground in an upper-caste wedding, while the other castes sit on chairs. He informed that members of upper castes don’t even turn up when they are invited for a wedding by the Dalit community. 

Mangal Chaudhary, a Jat resident of Madhopura, said the FIR lodged against 17 people is false since four or five of them were not even present in the village on that day. 

A senior sociologist, on the condition of anonymity, said there fights among different classes of people not only in the society but in government, administration and even private offices. (Please give name of Socioligist Mr. Rajiv Gupta)

“Since the animal (horse/mare) is associated with monarchy, there are many implications of sitting on it. The first is the government only, but keeping a mare is also an indicator of prosperity. Therefore, whenever a Dalit is seen riding on a horse or a mare, it is not tolerated by a lot of people,” he added.

Life after boycott

The communication between the Dalits and Jats is still on hold. Dalits have to pay Rs 400 to the water tankers from a village six kilometres away for water worth Rs 250. Situated under Dantri gram panchayat of Jaipur district, Madhopura has about 150 households of the Jat community, 35 houses of Dalit community and about 40 houses of other castes—Rajput, Kumhar, Vaishnava and Bagaria.

Dinesh Lal, son of Raju Lal, said when they were in school, there were separate lines for upper-caste children and Dalits. He mentioned that even today, Dalit children are called by their caste names. 

He added that when the members of the Jat community had beaten him up, they used abusive language against him. 

Ritu, a student of class nine, said while there is no discrimination in the school, children of Jat community use abusive language against them. She revealed the kids belonging to the Jat community don’t play with them or give them food to eat in their utensils. 

Kailash Sen, an upper-caste resident, said there isn’t any boycott in place and it’s the shopkeeper's decision on who he chooses to sell his goods to. He informed that the shopkeepers only refused to give goods on credit to Dalits. 

Chauthu Ram Chaudhary, an upper-caste resident, said the religious rituals will have to be followed by everyone. He claimed the residents of Raigar basti called the police and made the case bigger than it actually was.

Rajendra Singh, the Sarpanch of Madhopura village, said it was a simple matter which became a case of ego clash for both communities. There are five villages in Dantari Gram Panchayat, but there is no discrimination or untouchability anywhere, he claimed while adding that this was the first incident of the kind in Madhopura. 

Recently, a video of a beating of a Dalit in Pali district went viral on social media. Media reports of discrimination against Dalits are frequent from several districts such as Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Jhunjhunun. 

Over 50% cases pending

Dalit atrocities are increasing in the state. A total of 2371 cases of atrocities have been committed against Scheduled Castes (SC) from January to May. Out of these, 33 are murder cases and 201 rape cases. 42 cases have been registered under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and 2083 cases are registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Police investigation is going on in 1212 cases—51.12% of the cases are pending.

In the same way, in 2018, 4607 cases of torture against SCs were registered, 4238 in 2017 and 5135 in 2016. In 2018, 117 cases were registered under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

As mentioned in the first story of the series, the director of Dalit Manav Adhikar Kendra, said setting up of social justice committees—under the Gram Panchayat Raj Act, 1995—has not been taken up seriously. Kumar added that a high-level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee for the protection of Dalits has not convened since 2012. (This statement is only for Rajasthan's Condition)

According to data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2016 only 25 cases of crimes against SCs were registered under the Protection of Civil Rights Act compared with 40,718 cases registered under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Srinivas Janga Rao, Additional Director General of Police, (Civil Rights), revealed that fewer cases are registered under the Protection of Civil Rights Act because the sentence and penalty are very low, so the cases are registered by the police under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Rao added that there has been a reduction in cases of discrimination against Dalits, but such practices are still prevalent in several areas of Rajasthan. He noted that there haven’t been any major incidents in the last few years as the police take immediate action on the complaint. 

Apart from this, if such incidents happen, then Rajasthan Police has Peace Committee—headed by district-level officers—who deal with such incidents, he informed.

Navdeep Singh, Former Director General of Police with Rajasthan Police, said the police have been working efficiently, and a lot of positive changes are taking place. He said the judicial system is very slow and it takes time to arrive at a verdict. “The biggest thing is that our system is evolutionary, not revolutionary, that's why it takes time to change,” he said.