Dalit Women Speak Out: Caste, Class and Gender Violence in India

India.

Introduction

I am conscious of the fact that if women are conscientized the untouchable community will progress. I believe that women should organize and this will play a major role in bringing an end to social evils ... The progress of the Dalit community should be measured in terms of the progress made by its womenfolk. Every woman should stand by her husband, not as his slave but as his contemporary, as his friend.

[Dr B.R. Ambedkar, speech to the Dalit Mahila Federation in 1942.]

Dr Ambedkar’s words remain as significant today as they were in 1942, revealing his realization that the empowerment of Dalit women to enable them to realize their rights and eradicate caste and gender discrimination was intrinsic to the achievement of the wider goal of Dalit human rights. Besides, he provided Indian society with a benchmark and a basis on which to measure the social, economic, and political progress of the Dalit community and, one can argue, the progress of the Indian nation, in terms of the accrual of rights to one of its most marginalized sections of society, Dalit women. From this flow several questions: What in India today is the status of Dalit women’s enjoyment of their rights, equality, and justice? What are the nature and forms of violence that these women encounter when accessing these rights? How is this violence related to systemic discrimination against these women? According to Bharati from Andhra Pradesh, whose words perhaps represent the 500 Dalit women’s voices that emerge from this study, ‘Women always face violence from men. Equality is only preached, but not put into practice. Dalit women face more violence everyday and they will continue to do so until society changes and accepts them as equals.’

The right to equality, regardless of gender and caste, is a fundamental right in India. Notwithstanding this constitutional requirement, however, the Indian government has acknowledged that the institutional forces—caste, class, community and family—arraigned against this right are powerful and shape people’s mindsets to accept pervasive gender inequality.¹ This is no more apparent than when one visits Dalit women living in their caste-segregated localities across India. Vulnerably positioned at the bottom of India’s gender, caste, and class hierarchies, Dalit women are the most vulnerable to the severely imbalanced social, economic, and political power equations in terms of endemic caste–class–gender discrimination and violence. This violence, as Para. 112 of the Beijing Platform for Action 1995 states, presents a major ‘obstacle to the achievement of development, equality and peace’, and constrains most aspects of Dalit women’s lives.

Scheduled caste² or Dalit women in India today number 80.517 million or approximately 48 per cent of the total Dalit population, 16 per cent of the total female population, and 8 per cent of the total Indian population.³ They, together with their male counterparts, constitute a sizeable social group that continues to suffer descent and work-based discrimination, ‘untouchability’ practices, and violence arising out of the caste system. Historically, Dalits have been excluded from social, economic, cultural, civil, and political rights. Egregious denial of rights and violations have been primarily due to customary restrictions imposed on them under India’s stratified social hierarchy based on their birth into particular ‘polluted’ jatis or castes. Untouchability practices based on notions of Dalits’ supposed impurity operate as tools for the social exclusion and exploitation of this community, under a socio-religiously legitimized mechanism for denying this community their fundamental rights. Dalits are, therefore, among the most socially and economically vulnerable communities given their social exclusion, lack of access to landownership, lack of significant political participation, and lack of free employment; over half the Dalit workforce are landless agricultural labourers dependant on the dominant castes ⁴in their localities for their livelihood. Within the Dalit community, Dalit women are more vulnerably placed given caste and gender subordination.

The violence perpetrated against Dalit women provides ample evidence of their widespread exploitation and the discrimination to which they are subject, subordinated both in terms of power relations to men in a patriarchal society and in terms of their communities on the basis of caste. Violence is also the core outcome of gender-based inequalities, shaped, compounded, and intensified by caste discrimination. In an Indian context, violence acts as a crucial social mechanism to maintain Dalit women’s caste and gender subordinate position to men and particularly dominant caste men.⁵ Hence, Dalit women are more likely to face collective and public threats or acts of social violence than dominant caste women, who tend to be subjected to violence more within the family due to strict controls over their sexuality and freedom of movement. As the National Commission for Women has commented, ‘in the commission of offences against … the scheduled caste women the offenders try to establish their authority and humiliate the community by subjecting their women to indecent and inhuman treatment, including sexual assault, parading naked, using filthy language, etc.’⁶

Besides, widespread patriarchal attitudes shape Dalit women’s experiences of violence in the domestic sphere of the family, multiplying the gendered harm perpetrated against them. The insecurity generated through structural violence against Dalit women in both the general community and within the family acts as a form of coercive control over them. This ensures that Dalit women continue to be disempowered, socially suppressed, and physically, sexually, economically, and politically exploited.

This situation exists today despite constitutional guarantees of nondiscrimination on the basis of caste and gender (Article 15(1)), the right to life and security of life (Article 21), and the constitutional directive to specifically protect Dalits from social injustice and all forms of exploitation (Article 46). Moreover, the Indian state has enacted a series of laws protecting the rights of Dalits and women, acknowledging the prevalence of discrimination and violence against these sections of society. Key laws relating to this are the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 and the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955.

The gamut of national laws in place to protect Dalit women from violence in the general community and in the family are complemented by international standards, as Article 51 of the Indian Constitution requires the Indian state to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations.⁷ These are standards enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (ICCPR),⁸ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 (ICESCR),⁹ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1965 (ICERD),¹⁰ Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC)¹¹, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 1979 (CEDAW) ¹² and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993 (DEVW).

Consequently, affirming the constitutional rights granted to Dalit women citizens, they have equal rights: to life, liberty and security of person (Arts. 6(1) and 9 ICCPR); freedom from torture, or cruel, in human or degrading treatment or punishment (Art. 7 ICCPR); freedom from arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on their honor and reputation (Art. 17 ICCPR); and freedom of movement (Art. 12(1) ICCPR). The Indian state should condemn all propaganda and all organizations based on ideas or theories of superiority of [caste], or which attempt to justify or promote racial [caste based] hatred and discrimination in any form, and undertake to adopt immediate and positive measures designed to eradicate all incitement to, or acts of, such discrimination (Art. 4 ICERD). It should also take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations, and ensure them equality in marriage (Art. 16 CEDAW), and in health-care, in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health-care services (Art. 12 CEDAW) and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Art 12(1) ICESCR). The state further bears responsibility for suppressing all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women (Art. 6 CEDAW).

Finally, bearing in mind the specific rights of the Dalit girl child, the following obligations lie on the Indian state to ensure their protection: safeguarding their right to life (Art. 6(1) CRC).

However, the existence of laws without concomitant implementation to ensure the personal security of Dalit women, and without concerted efforts to emancipate the Dalit community and eradiate entrenched caste-class, and gender-biased notions of (in)equality and (in)justice, is of little value. As human rights are the foundation of human needs, there is a profound and urgent need to address the Dalit women’s requirements for personal security, socio-economic development, and social justice.

In order to understand the reality of Indian society in general, and the Dalit community and Dalit women in particular, an analysis of interlinking caste–class–gender dynamics is imperative. It is only by adopting this threefold lens focusing on the socio-cultural and economic dimensions of the intersection of gender, caste, and class discrimination that a true realization can emerge of the basis of social relations and social inequalities in India.¹³ This analytical lens, based on Dalit women’s subjective experiences, highlights how these women become instruments through which the social system replicates itself and systemic inequality is maintained: that is, violence against Dalit women is utilized to deny them opportunities, choices, and freedoms at multiple levels, undermining not only Dalit women’s dignity and self-respect, but also their right to development. An intersectional caste–class–gender analysis also fulfils the need to make Dalit women visible to the public eye through an exposure of the reality of the violence and disempowerment to which they are subject which is intrinsically related to their social position.

Currently, very little concrete governmental or non-governmental data is available on the subject of Dalit women and violence, especially from a human rights perspective informed by standards laid down in the Indian Constitutions 1949, sundry national laws, and also international human rights conventions. Such data as exists is disaggregated by gender or by caste, and not by both factors. The question of caste discrimination and untouchability has been extensively discussed and documented, but largely with reference to Dalits as a group and not with specific reference to Dalit women. Little research exists on women’s experiences of caste discrimination and violence, as ‘Dalits among the Dalits’,¹⁴ resulting not only from their descent and work, but also their gender.

Notwithstanding this limitation of lack of disaggregated information on violence against Dalit women, certain trends can be adduced from government data on crimes against Dalits in general and women in particular, as well as non-official, researched sources of information on violence against Dalit women. It is also necessary to view Dalit women’s vulnerability and insecurity brought about through violence within the broader context of the socio-economic and political conditions of women and Dalits in general, and finally, where available, for Dalit women as a separate category vis-à-vis non-Dalit women.

Pervasive Violence Against Dalit Women

Violence or ‘atrocities’¹⁵ against Dalit women occur at two levels: as an inherent part of the caste system, utilizing violence to reinforce caste norms, with Dalit women susceptible to all forms of violence, especially sexual violence; and when they transgress caste norms, such as those relating to caste endogamy or untouchability, or assert their rights over resources: public or cultural spaces. In other words, the process of Dalit women’s empowerment in itself is perceived as a challenge to caste and patriarchal structures, and provides fertile ground for punitive violence perpetrated by the dominant castes.

Violence is socially legitimized through the impunity with which perpetrators of violence against Dalit women often operate. At one extreme end are the mass killings of Dalits in the central plains of Bihar by the private armies of the dominant castes, such as the notorious Ranvir Sena, in response to Dalit assertions of rights to government surplus or common land, minimum wages, and against sexual exploitation of Dalit women by dominant caste landlords. Between 1990 and 2000, around 15 massacres of a total of 158 Dalits have been recorded, many of the victims being women.¹⁶ However, it is the daily violence against Dalit women that is disturbingly pervasive and amounts to the ‘violent appropriation and sexual control of Dalit women by dominant caste men’. ¹⁷

Overall, a rise in reported crimes against scheduled castes has occurred in recent years, from 25,445 in 2000 to 26,127 in 2005.¹⁸ As of 2005, Uttar Pradesh (UP) leads in the number of crimes against scheduled castes (forming 16.8 per cent of all reported crimes), followed by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh (11.9 per cent), Bihar (7.0 per cent), Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu (4.6 per cent). Indian government representatives acknowledged, during the hearing of India’s initial report under the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women 1979 in January 2000, that Dalit women bore the brunt of caste-based atrocities.¹⁹ Another more recent official acknowledgement of the problem has come from the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which noted that ‘women belonging to these [scheduled] castes and [scheduled] tribes bore a double burden. They were exploited by caste and gender, and were vulnerable to and powerless against sexual exploitation.’²⁰

Similarly, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women has also noted that Dalit women

face targeted violence, even rape and death from state actors and powerful members of dominant castes, used to inflict political lessons and crush dissent within the community, or the women are used as pawns to capture their men folk. These women are gang raped, forced into prostitution, stripped, paraded around naked, made to eat excrement or even murdered for no crime of theirs … Young Dalit girls are married off at an early age mainly as protection against sexual assault from dominant caste men. ²¹

In the absence of separate gender data for Dalit and dominant caste women, general gender data is indicative at least of the enormity of gender violence to which Dalit women are subjected. The incidence of reported crimes against all women has increased steadily from 141,373 in 2000 to 155,553 in 2005.²² Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest number of gender crimes (constituting 13.4 per cent of all reported gender crimes), followed by Uttar Pradesh (9.6 per cent), Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu (5.6 per cent). Bihar ranked 13 in terms of crimes against women. Women’s organizations have noted that there is no north-south divide when it comes to crimes against women, suggesting that casteist and patriarchal attitudes towards women prevail across India. ²³

Numerous acts of violence continue to be registered under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, falling within the 15 defined atrocities which attract stringent penalties.²⁴ An increase in the number of cases occurred from 2000 to 2005, with 7,386 cases registered in 2000 as against 8,497 cases in 2005, while 2001 alone recorded a large jump to 13,113 cases.²⁵ Official statistics, do not however reveal the extent of the problem. As this research project reveals, an overwhelming number of cases—roughly two-thirds of all cases of violence against Dalit women—remain unreported and are not registered with the police, especially in cases of gender violence. Gender discrimination and biases in Indian society often ensure social condemnation of women who publicize violence, especially sexual violence, committed against them. This bias, cloaked under the notion of family or community ‘honour’, effectively serves to silence the voices of many women survivors of violence. In the case of Dalit women, intimidation, particularly from the dominant caste perpetrators, and pressures to ‘compromise’ on cases (that is, forced acceptance of paltry sums of money in return for not filing or withdrawing police cases, instituted by police or local village panchayat leaders) contributes to the non-registration of cases, along with police biases against Dalit women on the basis of their caste–class–gender identities. This situation has not been helped by, for instance, the Uttar Pradesh government which promulgated Government Order No.92MM/6-Po.-3-2002-25P/2002 in 2002. This Order stated that all crimes against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes should be reported only after verification. Instances of rape would be recorded only after being established through a medical report, and only ‘serious’ matters such as murder and rape would invoke the provisions of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Evidence of Dalit women’s greater vulnerability to physical and sexual crimes can be seen clearly in the latest National Family Health Survey (2001): 41.7 per cent of scheduled caste women aged 15–49 years have experienced physical violence since the age of 15 years as compared to 30.8 per cent of non-scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) women; 11.0 per cent of women in this age group have experienced sexual violence as compared to 7.6 per cent of non-SC/ST women.²⁶ Notwithstanding this, 64.8 per cent of scheduled caste women had never told anyone of the violence, while only 26.1 per cent had sought help from any source to end the violence. ²⁷

The only caste-and-gender disaggregated crime annually reported by the National Crimes Record Bureau is rape: 1,172 cases involving Dalit women were reported officially in 2005.²⁸ Notably, the National Human Rights Commission has stated that ‘the number of rapes against scheduled caste women shows an increasing trend. Mass rape is used by upper caste militias as a weapon to break morale of the entire community. Rape is used as a political instrument, and these women become the targets for anger and wrath of the dominant castes.’²⁹ According to a Tamil Nadu (TN) state government investigator, the raping of Dalit women and girls exposes the hypocrisy of the caste system, as ‘no one practices untouchability when it comes to sex’. ³⁰

Besides the extreme crime of rape, sexual assault (molestation) of women constitutes 22.0 per cent, and sexual harassment 6.4 per cent, of all reported crimes against women in general in 2005.³¹ The significance for Dalit women lies in the fact that a clear relationship appears to exist between higher work participation rates, hence higher poverty levels, and sexual crimes.³² Given that a larger percentage of Dalit women work outside the home than non-SC/ST women, they would seem to be more vulnerable to these forms of violence in public spaces from members of the general community.

One specific form of violence against Dalit women that fails to be recorded in official government statistics as a crime against women is the practice of the Decades or Jogging system of ritualized, religiously sanctioned prostitution. Thousands of, principally Dalit, girls between the ages of 6 and 13, particularly in Andhra Pradesh (AP), Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Orison, are dedicated to temple deities. Once dedicated, the girls are unable to marry and are instead forced to become prostitutes for the temple priests, dominant caste village elders, or all men in the village. Eventually many Devadasis or Joginis are auctioned into urban brothels. It is estimated by non-governmental organizations that 5,000 to 15,000 girls are secretly auctioned every year.³³ A field study conducted in 2003–2004 by Andhra Pradesh Jogini Vyavastha Vyethireka Porata Sangathana across 12 Jogini-prone districts in the state established the presence of approximately 25,000 Joginis in these districts. Approximately 90 per cent were living in the poorest region of Telangana, and almost 90 per cent were from the Dalit community.³⁴ This is a clear indication of the inadequate implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act 1988, with the Action Plan for 2001–2002 of the Social Welfare Department, Government of AP identifying a target of a mere 1,133 Joginis for rehabilitation into other less degrading occupations.

In addition, certain practices relating to untouchability directly affect Dalit women vis-à-vis men, and form the core of much violence related to violation of the purity–pollution socio-religious norms. These are specifically norms relating to access to livelihood resources such as water, wages, and common property resources such as firewood, which directly affects Dalit women because they are the ones who access these resources for their families. These gendered responsibilities provide the locales where violence occurs in reaction to Dalit women defying untouchability norms and asserting their rights by accessing common wells situated in dominant caste localities, or by collecting firewood from common land, or by demanding fair or full wages. In Andhra, for example, untouchability practices form the third largest percentage of reported atrocities against Dalit women after rapes and attacks, though many attacks are also as revenge for transgressing untouchability norms.³⁵ In this study, violence against women accessing water rights in the form of physical and verbal attacks was documented in all the four states, namely Andhra, Bihar/ Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Caste discrimination and violence are also clearly evident in various government schemes. A 2003 study of the implementation of the government’s Midday Meal Scheme and Public Distribution System linked to guaranteeing the right to food in five Indian states revealed practices of untouchability and caste discrimination prevalent across 37 per cent of the villages surveyed where the midday meal scheme was in operation in schools, affecting not only Dalit children but also the many Dalit women hired as cooks under the scheme. Similarly, for the majority of Dalit women queuing at ration shops across the states surveyed, practices of untouchability and caste favouritism by the ration shop dealers was a common experience.³⁶ Discrimination in these government schemes is also the basis for violence against Dalit women, as attested to by cases presenting this study.

In addition, widespread patriarchal attitudes shape Dalit women’s experiences of violence in the family, multiplying the gendered harm perpetrated against them. Domestic violence forms the single largest recorded crime against women in India, accounting for 37.5 per cent of all crimes against women, excluding dowry deaths.³⁷ Official data suggests that around 47.9 per cent of ever-married scheduled caste women aged 15–49 years have experienced emotional, physical, or sexual violence committed by their husbands, the most common being physical violence (43.3 per cent). By comparison, 36.8 per cent of ever-married non-SC/ST women in this age group reported this violence.³⁸ This form of violence exposes Dalit women and girls to torture within the home, thereby denying them a safe haven from the widespread violence perpetrated by the dominant castes.

Violence perpetrated against Dalit women must also be analysed in a wider context; that is, how this violence is compounded and facilitated by, as well as an outcome of, systemic discrimination denying women substantive socio-economic and political rights. This is because Dalit women’s socio-economic vulnerability and lack of political voice, when combined with the dominant risk factors of being Dalit and female, increase their exposure to potentially violent situations, while simultaneously reducing their ability to escape.³⁹ Violence against Dalit women, in turn, has a serious impact on their socio-economic rights, especially their right to health, besides constraining their ability to bring about positive social change for themselves, their children, and their communities.

Poor Economic Conditions and Landlessness

With around 80 per cent of Dalits and Dalit women concentrated in rural India,⁴⁰ official sources indicate that poverty is more widespread among the Dalit community than other communities. Rural poverty ratios remain higher for the scheduled caste community (36.2) as against non-SC/ST communities (21.6), while urban scheduled castes endure a poverty ratio almost comparable to that of their rural counterparts (38.6).⁴¹ With a mean annual income of Rs 3,298 and average per capita poor rural household expenditure of Rs.96.20, Dalits constitute the poorest of the poor in India. By comparison, rural non-SCs/ STs have a mean annual income of Rs 5,088 and the average per capita poor rural household expenditure is Rs 100.60. ⁴²

The poor economic status of rural Dalits is further reflected in their lack of ownership of land in combination with with their concentration in wage labour. In 1993–4, only 35.1 per cent of scheduled caste rural labour households owned any land, as against 81.19 per cent overall landownership for all households. Besides, of those scheduled caste rural labour households with land, 68.0 per cent cultivated marginal land-holdings of less than 0.4 ha. of land, while only 10.1 per cent cultivated over 1 ha. This compares with 59.6 per cent of all rural labor house holds cultivating under 0.4 ha of land, while 13.3 per cent cultivated over 1 ha.⁴³ In this context, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has commented:

the unequal distribution of land has given rise to conflict and has created serious law and order problems in many parts of the country. The division of the rural society along caste lines has further worsened the situation in the case of the scheduled castes. The frequent killings of scheduled castes in Bihar and formation of armies along caste lines is primarily a struggle for ownership of land.⁴⁴

The additional significance of low levels of landownership is that the majority of Dalit women and men eke out their livelihood by engaging in wage-labour occupations in the unorganized sector, which are synonymous with low wages, lack of assets as a buffer against risk factors, and economic dependence on the dominant castes. As Human Rights Watch has noted, ‘dominant caste employers frequently use caste as a cover for exploitative economic arrangements: social sanction of [Dalit women’s] status as lesser beings allows their impoverishment to continue’. ⁴⁵

Of the total rural scheduled caste households in 1999–2000, 51.4 per cent were engaged in agricultural labour and another 10.0 per cent in other forms of wage labour. Dalit agricultural labour ers often work for few kilogrammes of rice or Rs 15 to Rs 45 a day, all too frequently less than the legally stipulated minimum wage. Gender inequality in wage rates ensure that Dalit women are consistently paid less than men. At the same time, for non-SC/ST households only 19.0 per cent were agricultural labour households and another 6.3 per cent were in other wage labour occupations, the majority (41.4 per cent) being concentrated in the cultivation of their land. A similar pattern emerges in urban areas, where 26.5 per cent of scheduled caste households engage in casual labour as against 7.4 per cent for non-SC/ST households, and 64.9 per cent salaried and self-employed scheduled caste households compare with 82.0 per cent salaried and self-employed non-SC/ST households. ⁴⁶

Poverty and lack of cultivable land forces more Dalit women into the workforce, exposing them to violence in public spaces. Dalit women’s contribution, as a major element in the national workforce is indicated by their higher work participation rate as both principal and marginal workers (29.6 per cent) as against women in general (25.6 per cent). Indeed, the scheduled caste women’s work participation rate has grown over the past decade since 1991 when it was 26.0 per cent, and does not include the large numbers of Dalit women who engage in ‘unpaid family labour’: cattle rearing, labouring on marginal plots of land, etc.⁴⁷ More accurate perhaps is one micro-level study in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, which revealed that nearly 89.5 per cent of all Dalit women participate in some form of productive labour. ⁴⁸ Also, Dalit girls enter the workforce at earlier ages than their non-Dalit counterparts. In Tamil Nadu, for example, work participation rates in 1991 stood at 6.81 per cent for scheduled caste girls aged 5 to 14 years and 47.21 per cent for girls aged 15 to 19 years, while work participation rates for non-scheduled caste girls aged 5 to 14 years was 4.68 per cent and for girls aged 15 to 19 years, 29.61 per cent. ⁴⁹

The overwhelming majority of SC women workers are concentrated in the primary sector in rural areas as agricultural labourers (57.4 per cent), with less than 20 per cent cultivating land (18.1 per cent). A further small percentage are household industry workers (5.6 per cent), while the remainder are engaged in other occupations (19.0 per cent).

Looking just at rural India where the majority of Dalit women are concentrated, 61.8 per cent are agricultural labourers while only 19.9 per cent are cultivators. By comparison, rural women workers in general are less concentrated in the primary sector, with fewer women agricultural labourers (48.4 per cent) and more women engaged in the cultivation of their land (40.6 per cent).⁵⁰ This in itself is indicative of the higher economic status of other caste women in general. Dalit women also dominate certain spheres of menial work given their ‘lower’ caste status. Traditional occupations such as civil sanitation, scavenging, and leatherwork remain largely in the hands of Dalit women. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes notes, regarding Dalits’ traditional polluted occupations, ‘their services for the society, though absolutely essential, were considered menial, unclean and required hard labour but brought abysmally low returns’.⁵¹ Over half a century on from Indian Independence, with many Dalits still concentrated in their traditional occupations or in agricultural labour, the same statement holds true of the present Dalit generations.

Highlighting the government neglect of the Dalit community, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has pointed out both the under-allocation and under-utilization of scheduled caste development funds in the Special Component Plans (SCP) formulated by each state, which is supplemented by the Special Central Assistance (SCA) funds. States such as Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, during the period 1998–9, the last period for which state-wise data is available (at the time of writing), failed to allocate sufficient SCP funds in proportion to the scheduled caste population in their states. During the period 1998–9, only 73 per cent utilization of SCP funds was reported in the country, with Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh regularly vastly under-utilizing SCP funds.⁵² Similar under-utilization of these funds (92 per cent utilization) in the country in 1998–9 is also apparent: Bihar utilized only 50.3 per cent, and Uttar Pradesh only 91.0 per cent.⁵³ Human rights groups in Andhra therefore requested the state government in 2003 to reallocate diverted SCP funds, con servatively estimated at Rs 2588.70 crore for the past nine years, to the Department of Social Welfare for disbursement to scheduled caste beneficiaries. ⁵⁴

Under-utilization of earmarked government funds has been complemented by misappropriation of funds for scheduled caste development: an example is the failure of the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corp. Ltd to evolve effective internal control systems resulting in ‘avoidable loss’ (read misappropriation) of Rs 0.17 crore. ⁵⁵ Another example is the mis-utilization of SCA funds amounting to Rs 64.91 lakh (57 per cent of the allotted fund of Rs 115.60 lakhs) meant for income-generating schemes for Dalits by the Siwan district magistrate, Bihar, in 1999.⁵⁶ The preliminary findings of a study, com missioned by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, on the implementation of SCP guidelines by the states, have also indicated a large-scale diversion of funds earmarked for the welfare of scheduled castes by the state governments.⁵⁷ This situation continues today notwithstanding Article 46 of the Indian constitution, which stipulates that the Indian state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the scheduled castes, and protect them from all forms of exploitation. Given this dismal situation relating to development for the Dalit community, a recent parliamentary committee report has recommended that Article 46 be restated as a fundamental right under the constitution in order that it be made justiciable. ⁵⁸

Literacy and Poor Levels of Formal Education

Though the right to primary education has been declared a fundamental right under the newly inserted Article 21A of the Indian constitution, the educational neglect of Dalit women is apparent from the vast disparity in literacy rates between scheduled caste women (41.9 per cent) as against women in general (53.7), Dalit men (66.6), and men in general (75.3).⁵⁹ The enrolment ratio for scheduled caste girls in primary education was marginally higher (106.6) than for girls in general (104.7), though not as high as for scheduled caste boys (123.3) or boys in general (110.7). However, by upper primary school the enrolment rate for scheduled caste girls declined drastically (61.5) as against girls in general (65.1), scheduled caste boys (77.9), and boys in general (74.3). ⁶⁰

When coupled with higher dropout rates among scheduled caste girls in Stds. I–V (36.1 per cent), Stds. I–VIII (60.0), and Stds. I–X (74.2), as compared to girls in general (25.4, 51.3 and 63.9 per cent respectively), scheduled caste boys (32.7, 55.2 and 69.1 per cent respectively) and boys in general (31.8, 50.5 and 60.4 per cent respectively), the indications are that formal education schemes still are not reaching or having sufficient sustained impact on Dalit girls. ⁶¹ In such a situation, the Tamil Nadu government, for example, has done little to help matters by allowing Rs 3.93 crore to remain unutilized by the Tamil Nadu Housing and Development Corp. under a scheme to provide cash incentives to rural scheduled caste girls in order to prevent dropouts from school. ⁶²

Additionally, at the level of higher education, scheduled caste girls form only 21.7 per cent of all scheduled caste students with graduate degrees and above, and scheduled caste girls in this educational category in turn are a mere 1.0 per cent of all scheduled caste girls aged 15 years and above. This gendered higher education divide means that few Dalit girls are professionally equipped to enter the organized sector, restricting their opportunities for socio-economic development. By contrast, women in general form 32.2 per cent of all students with graduate degree and above, and women in this educational category constitute 37.7 per cent of all women aged 15 years and above.⁶³ When viewing the poor overall educational rates of Dalit women in the context of their poor socio-economic conditions and high rates of dependancy on dominant castes for their livelihood, a pattern of effective subordination emerges. Moreover, the Indian state has failed in its obligation to fulfil the right to education for Dalit girls by inadequately implementing and monitoring educational schemes, with adequate funds. Data on the inadequate implementation of the SCP and SCA funds for Dalit welfare cited above, attest to this financial lacuna. Through this failure therefore the Indian state is complicit in perpetuating the disempowerment of millions of Dalit women.

Sub-Standard Health and Living Conditions

Firmly ingrained gender biases in favour of males ensure that India has alarmingly low female-to-male ratios. When compounded by poor nutritional health due to poverty and systemic violence, the sex ratio of the scheduled caste population stood at 936:1000 in 2001, but still better than the sex ratio for the non-SC/ST population of 928:1000, and indicative of the probable greater incidence of misuse of reproductive technologies (amniocentesis tests) in order to abort female foetuses among non-SC/ST families.⁶⁴ In either case, however, the demographic situation for women, and particularly Dalit women, is alarming.

A combination of poverty and sub-standard living conditions ensures that Dalit women are not able to avail of the right to health on par with the non-SC/ST population. Scheduled castes in 1991 had less access to safe drinking water (63.6 per cent), electricity (28.1), and toilet facilities (11.2) than non-SCs/STs (64.1 per cent with safe drinking water, 48.1 with electricity, and 28.6 with toilets).⁶⁵ Recognizing the traditional caste discrimination practised against Dalits over water rights, a few years ago the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes expressed its concern that over 20 per cent Dalit households lack access to potable drinking water despite the government’s alleged commitment to priority coverage of Dalit habitations for water supply. Moreover, ‘the figure could be higher, given that many times government-provided drinking water sources dry up, but the population is shown as having adequate drinking water facilities’. ⁶⁶

Dalit women’s poorer health standards are also evidenced in their lower nutritional status when compared to non-SC/ST women: 41.1 per cent of scheduled caste women have a body mass index of less than 18.5 kg/m² as compared to 32.8 per cent for non-SC/ST women; 58.3 per cent scheduled caste women are anaemic as compared to 53.0 per cent of non-SC/ST women; and scheduled caste women consistently consume less food, except meat, than non-SC/ST women.⁶⁷ Violence against Dalit women, therefore, not only exacerbates their poor health status but also enhances their vulnerability given this low human capital.

Lack of Political Voice

Finally, at the political level, Dalit women’s voices are rarely heard. At the national level, the twelfth Lok Sabha had 12 scheduled caste woman members of parliament (MPs), or 27 per cent of women MPs and 15 per cent of scheduled caste MPs. By the fourteenth Lok Sabha, however, this number had fallen to just 10 scheduled caste woman MPs, or 22 per cent of women MPs and 13 per cent of scheduled caste MPs.⁶⁸ When read in the light of the less than 10 per cent women’s representation in the Indian parliament, there is currently little scope for women’s effective participation in governance, let alone for Dalit women.

At the level of India’s panchayati raj or system of decentralized local government, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act 1992 reserves seats for scheduled castes in proportion to their population in the state, and 33 per cent of panchayat seats for women. Within the scheduled caste category, one-third of all seats are reserved for scheduled caste women. However, de jure affirmative action policies run up against huge hurdles in de facto implementation, particularly dominant caste interests, in preventing Dalits from accessing political power and resources for development. Scheduled castes in the village panchayats, block panchayats, and district panchayats across India in 2001 accounted for 14.3 per cent of members, falling below their population-based quota of 16.2 per cent; failure likewise to adhere to the minimum quota of 33 per cent for women was also seen in their 26.6 per cent representation in the panchayats in 2001.⁶⁹ Even when in the panchayats, political power often still remained with dominant caste members, effectively preventing Dalit women elected representatives from voicing their development concerns at panchayat meetings and influencing the allocation of development benefits to their communities.⁷⁰ In TN, caste tensions during the 2001 elections resulted in 96 scheduled caste reserved seats lying vacant, over half of these for Dalit women.⁷¹ Subsequent by-elections to fill vacant reserved seats often encountered caste resistance: in Nattamangalam panchayat, for example, a scheduled caste reserved seat has remained vacant after a Dalit woman was physically assaulted and threatened into withdrawing her nomination in 2001 by dominant caste villagers. ⁷²

At the level of the village community, Amnesty International has noted that the overriding importance of ‘community’ in a patriarchal sense ensures that women rarely have an independent voice in community matters.⁷³ This is most apparent in the existence of traditional village panchayats of caste elders or leaders that exist parallel to the formal panchayat system in most Indian villages. In these traditional panchayats, the voices of women and Dalits are often systematically suppressed under patriarchal and dominant caste notions of social and moral justice. When seen from the perspective of Dalit women, this voicelessness is reinforced through practices of untouchability and caste-based violence when these women seek to raise their voices and assert their rights of participation.

The overall effect of this cycle of denial of socio-economic and political rights, and intensified exposure to violence is to prevent Dalit women from availing their rights to life and security of life, their right to development, and their individuality as human beings endowed with dignity. Compounding this situation are Dalit women’s reduced prospects of accessing justice when violence is perpetrated by both state and non-state actors.

State Failure to Exercise Due Diligence

The Indian state bears the primary responsibility for respecting, protecting, and fulfilling women’s rights to a dignified life and security of life by providing the legal and policy framework to redress violence against women. This entails an international obligation to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate, and punish acts of violence against Dalit women in both public and private life, whether at the hands of state or non-state actors.⁷⁴ In other words, it is not sufficient for a state to merely legislate against violence against women. It must also proactively fulfil its duty by implementing these laws to ensure that legal sanctions for gender violence encourage social sanctions against this violence. Concurrently, the state must en sure women equality before the law and equal protection before the law, in accordance with Article 15(1) of CEDAW. More explicitly guaranteed for Dalit women is the right without discrimination on the basis of race to security of person and protection by the state against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution, in accordance with Article 5(b) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 1965 (ICERD). In addition to legal sanctions, the state must also undertake other protective and preventive measures to eradicate gender violence and gender discriminatory attitudes and practices in society.

Any case of violence against a Dalit woman has to pass through the hands of the local police and the judiciary in order for the woman to receive justice under the law. Safeguarding the impartiality of this process, Article 14 of the Indian constitution stipulates that all Indian citizens have the right to equality before the law. However, deeply ingrained normative values of appropriate gender and caste roles and behavioural patterns influence government officials, the police, and even judges who have the power to interpret and actualize rights. These socio-cultural, religiously rooted biases determine the discriminatory status quo to the detriment of Dalit women’s right to justice when violence occurs. As the UN special rapporteur on violence against women has noted, ‘constitutional and legislative provisions that have been enacted to protect women from discrimination have not proved to be an effective deterrent.’⁷⁵ Moreover, the government’s continual inaction in protecting, promoting, and fulfilling the rights of its Dalit women citizens—evidenced in the increasing rates of crimes against women and scheduled castes, its failure to resister many cases of violence against Dalit women, low disposal rates of scheduled caste atrocity cases combined with low conviction rates—points to structural injustice being perpetuated and the Indian state’s failure to comply with its international human rights obligations.

Manifestations of caste–class–gender biases are evidenced by police officials’ discrimination against Dalit women who attempt to file police cases and are turned away, or whose cases just lie without investigation in police stations across India. An unofficially established trend exists today of police collaborating with dominant caste perpetrators to file false cases against the Dalit women or their families in order to pressurize them to withdraw cases or make out-of-court settlements. In many instances Dalit women are threatened into compromises or forced to become hostile witnesses to ensure a case acquittal. Again, the culprits are only too often the police, or the dominant caste perpetrators who wield enormous socio-political power in the villages and are able to exploit the vulnerability of these women given their dependence on the dominant castes for their livelihood. Moreover, the existence of traditional village panchayats dispensing justice, which frequently exclusively comprise or are dominated by the dominant castes of the village, further lessens the prospects of justice for Dalit women victim-survivors of violence.

Police also often file cases of atrocities against Dalit women under the provisions of the ordinary Indian Penal Code 1860 provisions and not under the more stringently penal SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, or if the latter Act is utilized, only the least stringent section 3(1)(x)—verbal abuse and intimidation, including using caste name—will be booked. Notwithstanding the prevalence of these practices and compelling evidence of police collusion in offences against Dalit women, in no state has it been possible to find more than perhaps a handful of cases booked under section 4 SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 for official negligence. Similarly, one has only to see in how many states’ District Vigilance Committees, established to monitor caste tensions and prevent atrocities against Dalits, have been set up but remain only on paper, to perceive a pattern of state negligence and misuse of laws and the institutionalized patterns of injustice perpetrated against Dalit women victims of violence.

Moving further along the line of justice in India, as Dalit women too often experience it, delays in investigation or in filing the charge-sheet to bring the case to trial result in cases being dropped by police. Official statistics fail to provide a correct picture, with few cases reaching trial, not for want of evidence from the Dalit woman, but because the law and order and judicial system fails these women. For example, a petition has been filed before the National Human Rights Commission against a first additional sessions judge of the Kurnool District Special Court, Andhra Pradesh who had, in the course of 1999, erroneously dismissed 39 rape cases filed against Dalit women. It was petitioned that by demonstrating caste bias and misreading the letter and spirit of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, ASJ dismissed all the cases by alleging that they had been committed not on the basis of caste, but for reasons of lust or revenge. These are statistics that can only too often be misquoted to shift the burden of social condemnation off the shoulders of dominant caste perpetrators to that of the Dalit women victim–survivors. ⁷⁶

Notwithstanding these trends, in 2003 around 63.3 per cent of reported scheduled caste atrocity cases were charge-sheeted and a further 3.4 per cent had been investigated, and a final true report submitted. The majority of reported atrocity cases are therefore seen as genuine and requiring referral to courts of law for adjudication. The overall annual disposal rate of scheduled caste atrocity cases by courts in India was however only about 18.1 per cent of the total number of registered cases, leaving 92,708 cases pending trial at the close of that year. The conviction rate was just 5.2 per cent during that year. ⁷⁷ Similarly, the overall annual disposal rate of crimes against women by courts was only 15.9 per cent of the total number of cases registered, leaving 439,254 pending trial at the close of that year. The conviction rate was almost equal to that of scheduled caste atrocities cases, at just 5.3 per cent during that year.⁷⁸ Given that many cases of atrocities against Dalit women do not even make it to the registration stage, let alone the courts, clear evidence exists of the Indian state’s failure to protect Dalit women from violence. This impunity occurs despite the central assistance funds of Rs 2,708.78 lakhs released in 2000–1 under the centrally-sponsored scheme alone for the implementation of the Protection of Civil Right Act 1955 (as amended in 1976) and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, the two key pieces of legislation in place to punish crimes committed against Dalits. While this fund has almost doubled since the 1997–8 period (Rs 1,647.00 lakh), law enforcement to effectively prosecute dominant caste perpetrators of atrocities has not followed suit, sending a clear message of impunity to perpetrators of violence against Dalits. ⁷⁹

Compounding this abysmal situation, provisions for monetary relief to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe victims of atrocities, in accordance with the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules 1995, have not reached at least half the victim–survivors: in UP relief amounting to Rs 1,064.43 lakhs was distributed to victims of atrocities in the 1998–9 period; ⁸⁰ in AP, Rs 92.34 lakhs was disbursed to 891 victim– survivors of atrocities in the 1999–2000 period; ⁸¹ around Rs 134.81 lakhs was disbursed to 1,030 victim–survivors of atrocities in 2003–4, the majority of beneficiaries (760) receiving compensation under the least punitive section 3(1)(x) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.⁸² Given the often severe negative physical, psychological, and socioeconomic effects of violence on Dalit women, especially where the perpetrator continues to remain free in the village or area, justice and compensation serve a vital role in validating their unjust suffering, as well as aiding Dalit women victim–survivors to rebuild their lives after violence has occured. Their absence, therefore, merely compounds women’s suffering.

Taking into account this situation of rising rates of crimes against Dalit women and men, in combination with the failure of the state machinery to check this rise with stringent action, the parliamentary committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has stated that atrocities on scheduled castes and scheduled tribes constitute an internal disturbance under Article 355 of the Indian constitution, and has called for central government intervention under various provisions to take strict action against offending states. The committee has also castigated the home ministry for using, ‘police and public order being state subjects’, as an excuse for absolving them selves of the responsibility implied under Article 355. Finally, the committee ‘recommended positive steps’ being adopted wherever warranted to protect the Dalit community and punish perpetrators of violence against them. ⁸³

The overall performance of the Indian state, therefore, comes into serious question when measured against the standard of due diligence to prevent violence against Dalit women at the hands of non-state actors, not forgetting violence committed by state actors themselves. Giving effect to Dalit women’s rights demands not only that structures of protection—including investigation, prosecution, fair punishment, and compensation for violence—be instituted but that laws and policies be designed to