This is third time in the recent past that caste based atrocities have been reported from the desert state. In October, 12 family members of a Dalit family even got converted protesting against inaction of Police.
Attacks on Dalits in Rajasthan continue to rise as a new incident of a Dalit man being beaten, made to drink urine and garlanded with shoes came to the fore. A video purportedly shared by the attackers show a Dalit electrician from Rajasthan’s Sirohi district was thrashed for claiming his due payments at a Dhaba.
As per the reports of India Today, the man filed a complaint against three people to the police on November 23.
Bharat Kumar, a 38-year-old Dalit man did some electrical work in the Dhaba and gave the bill of Rs. 21000. However, as per the complaints, he was being given only Rs. 5000 and was asked to come later. In the afternoon when he went to claim his money, he was made to wait for long and was again asked to come around 9 pm.
Dinesh Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Sirohi told India Today when he went back around 9.10 pm, he was again asked to wait and as he threatened to file a complaint, they started beating him.
“At that, the accused nabbed him along with others and thrashed him. While hitting Kumar, they put a garland of shoes around his neck. One of them made videos and later uploaded them on social media platforms. They assaulted him for nearly five hours,” Kumar told India Today.
None has been arrested so far related to the case.
However, this incident adds to the consecutive attacks on Dalits in the desert state in the last few months. In the first week on November, a report came up of a 46-year-old Dalit man who had been brutally beaten to death for drawing water from a tube well in Jodhpur. The victim Kishanlal Bheel belonged to Bhomiyaji ki Ghati in Soorsagar.
According to his brother Ashok, the attackers also used casteist slurs against Bheel and didn’t allow him to be taken to hospital. It was only after the intervention of the police; he was sent to hospital where he succumbed to injuries. A protest against the attackers broke out soon and police arrested three people and charged them under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
In September, another incident from Jaisalmer hit the news as a 36-year-old Dalit man was beaten for drinking water from a pot reserved for the upper castes. According to the police complaint, “Chutra Ram Meghwal, 36, has said that he was sitting near a shop in his village and drank water from a pot kept outside the shop. Thereafter, four-five people confronted him and asked Meghwal why he drank water and beat him up. He claims that they also abused him with casteist slurs.”
The police here also registered a case under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act).
The growing incidents of attacks on Dalits in Rajasthan sometimes led to their conversion to Buddhism. In October, 12 members of a Dalit family from Baran district of Rajasthan embraced Buddhism and attributed their decisions to the inactiveness of the police in a case where two members of the family had been beaten brutally by the upper castes.