Crime against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes saw a rise of 7% and 26% in 2019: NCRB

Key Findings:

• In the number of cases of rape of women belonging to SCs, Rajasthan topped the list with 554 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 537 and Madhya Pradesh at 510 cases.
• Crime against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) saw an increase of over 7% and 26% respectively in year 2019 compared to 2018, according to the annual Crime in India 2019 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
• A total of 45,935 cases were registered for committing crime against SCs, showing an increase of 7.3% over 2018, when 42,793 such cases were recorded.
• At 11,829 cases, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against SCs in 2019, followed by 6,794 cases in Rajasthan and 6,544 cases in Bihar, the report said.

Rape cases

• In the number of cases of rape of women belonging to SCs, Rajasthan topped the list with 554 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 537 and Madhya Pradesh at 510 cases.

Simple hurt

• 1,675 cases formed the highest number of cases of crimes and atrocities against STs, accounting for 20.3% of the total crimes committed in 2019.

Cognizable crimes

• It showed an increase of 1.6% in registration of cases over 2018 (50, 74,635 cases) which comprises cognizable crimes under Indian Penal Code (IPC) ones and Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes.

Cybercrimes

• Increased by 63.5% in 2019
• 4% of cybercrime cases registered were for the motive of fraud, followed by sexual exploitation, and causing disrepute.

CHRI statement

• The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a police reforms advocacy group, said few cases were being registered for specific discriminatory action against SCs and STs.
• Crimes against SCs and STs include the following categories-
  • atrocities committed by non-SC/ST members under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989 (hereafter POA Act),
  • The Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.

Conclusion: “The low percentage of cases registered just under the POA Act alone indicates that very few cases alleging specific discriminatory actions on the basis of caste and tribal identity that are defined as atrocities under Section 3 of the Act are being registered on their own.

• Such actions are registered mainly when accompanied by any of the IPC offences.
• There is no data on total complaints received on crimes against the Scheduled Castes.

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