SC criticises poor implementation of SC/ST Act

• Supreme Court has criticised the government for its “indifferent attitude” towards the implementation of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
• Supreme Court has directed the National Legal Services Authority to frame schemes for spreading legal awareness and free consultations to members of the SC/ST communities nationwide.
• The court has asked the authorities to discharge their duties to protect the SCs/STs to attain the constitutional goal of equality for all citizens.

Analysis:

• SCs and STs constitute about one fourth of population of our country and in spite of constitutional safeguard, protective laws and institutional arrangement, they continue to live a life with fear and discrimination. It is our national mandate to build an inclusive society that respects dignity without discrimination based on caste and ethnic identities.
• The Constitution of India in Article 14 says about equality before law, and 15, prohibition of discrimination based on caste and 17, abolition of untouchability and 46 says about protection of SCs and STs from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.
• The statutory bodies under the this Act such as State vigilance and monitoring committee, district vigilance and monitoring committee headed by Chief Minister and district Collectors respectively have been dysfunctional and without even routine work mentioned in the PoA Rule. The SC and ST MLAs and MPs and Government officials are members in such legal bodies without any proactive role. There has been no special court; the existing district courts are designated as special courts.
• The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 primarily addressing the issues of untouchability. There has been a felt need to make a special legislation to make legal intervention in issues of atrocities against SCs and STs. After 40 years of constitutional governance, the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (POA Act) came into force on January 30, 1990 as a central Act.
• The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) in its report Crime in India 2014 has reported 47,064 cases of atrocity against SCs and 11,451 cases against STs in the country in the year 2014. It says the number has increased by about 20 per cent than the previous year in cases SCs and by about 69 per cent in case of STs. During 2014 there were 1, 27,341 cases of crime committed against SCs and 27,207 cases against STs were pending for trial in the country.
• Most of SC/STs are not aware of their rights and protections, our education system should be framed in such a way to provide the basic law to all citizens in school level itself.
• Police show indifferent attitude toward filing case under this act. This is among the main reasons why SC/STs do not approach for the legal protections.
• In order to strengthen this act, there is a need for Sensitization and training of police , district authorities ,lawyers about caste based discrimination and provisions of act.
• There is also a need to increase general awareness of act and rights among the SC and STs population.
• Media should raise issues of caste discrimination the subtle forms of caste discrimination should be a part of national debate and awareness as administrative bodies are a part of the larger society.
   

By: Vishal