Jaipur, September 13th, 2012

The NHRC's two-day open hearing of complaints of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in Rajasthan began in Jaipur today. Inaugurating the hearing, Mr. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC said that the Commission has embarked upon a mission to hear the complaints of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in every state as per the recommendations of Mr. K.B. Saxena, a retired IAS officer, whom the Commission had engaged for studying the problems of Scheduled Castes in the country. He said that it is disheartening to note that despite enabling laws, complaints of violations of Dalits rights have not gone down.

Justice Balakrishnan said that NHRC is not focused only on criminal cases but also more on the social upliftment of the Scheduled Castes which if is taken care of well by the State the number of crime rate will automatically go down.

According to an estimate, Rajasthan reported the highest rate of crime of 7.6 per cent against the Scheduled Castes as compared to the national average of 2.8 per cent in the year 2011. For this open hearing, NHRC received about 300 complaints on alleged violations of Dalits rights in Rajasthan, out of which we have short-listed about 115 complaints to be taken up for hearing by the NHRC Members Mr. Justice B. C. Patel and Mr. Satyabrata Pal in two separate benches today. Prior to open hearing in Rajasthan, the Commission has held three open hearings of complaints on atrocities against Scheduled Castes in Odisha, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and heard more than 600 complaints relating to the problems of Scheduled Castes and recommended on the spot relief in many cases.

Justice Balakrishnan said that NHRC does not have an adversarial role to the functioning of the governments; its interventions amount only to help the state in good governance to ensure promotion and protection of human rights. However, keeping in view the mandate given to the NHRC under the protection of Hunan Rights Act, the Commission would not mince its words wherever it finds shortcomings in the good governance violating people's human rights. The aim of open hearing is to sensitize the official machinery. In the interaction with the State Government subsequent to the hearing, the Commission may convey its observations and advice on various actions to be taken for effective enforcement of law, sustaining confidence of victims and, where required, looking into the conduct of officials coming in for adverse reference during the hearing. The follow up action on the hearings may be monitored."

Mr. C.K. Mathew, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan admitted that Rajasthan has registered a high number of cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and problems relating to them but the conviction rate has been low for various reasons. He said that successive State Governments and the present Government have taken several measures to address their problems. A special budgetary provision has been made for the welfare and development of Scheduled Castes. 31,000 SC families have been allotted lands. District and State level vigilance committee meetings as envisaged in the SC/ST (PoA) Act are being held regularly. Special courts have been setup in 25 districts to hear their complaints and give justice to them. He said that 18 districts having Scheduled Castes population have been identified has trouble prone.

The complaint being heard by the Commission mostly pertain to delay in release of scholarship, denial of benefits of social welfare schemes, police inaction and poor investigation among others. After the open hearing of the complaints, the Commission will hold discussion with the representatives of the local NGOs tomorrow on the problem of SCs.

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